Code makes it easier for banned officials to enter the EU
New visa code has taken effect across the Schengen area.
On Monday (5 April), a new visa code took effect across the Schengen area of European countries that have abolished internal border controls.
Adopted by the European Parliament and the member states last July, the new code aims to re-group, in a single legislative instrument, existing rules and procedures on the issuing of visas valid for visits of up to 90 days, according to Joannes de Ceuster, head of the unit dealing with visa policy in the European Commission’s justice, liberty and citizenship department. This recast makes the applicable rules more transparent, the Commission believes.
But some of the technical changes contained in the new code could, if interpreted liberally, undermine the common approach of the Schengen area, which covers the member states of the European Union except the United Kingdom and Ireland plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
The main change concerns the way member states issue visas with “limited territorial validity”. Such visas, which were already possible under the old rules, allow a member state to admit to its territory (but not the entire Schengen area) foreign officials subject to an EU or Schengen travel ban in order to receive medical treatment or to attend an international conference.
Blacklisted figures
The new code brings only incremental changes to the way the Schengen countries issue short-stay visas to nationals of countries that figure on a common blacklist.
Article 25 of the new code now makes it possible for other Schengen member states to align themselves with the issuing country. A national visa can thus become valid for several Schengen states, in effect creating a zone within which the general Schengen rules do not apply.
Italy threatened on 16 March to use this mechanism in order to admit members of the Libyan regime in order to put pressure on Switzerland to lift its visa ban on Libyan citizens. The threat was enough for Switzerland to lift the ban on 24 March. The Swiss understood that the ban would lose its effect if Italy began issuing visas to Libyans, and other countries – Spain and Malta, for example – agreed to recognise such visas.
The code is unambiguous: national visas are an exception granted on humanitarian grounds, for reasons of national interest or following international obligations. The association of other member states with national visas is a further exception within the exception. The rationale for the change is purely practical, according to de Ceuster. The old rules forced holders of national visas to travel directly to the issuing member state, which in many situations may be impossible.
The new rules make it possible, for example, for the holder of a Slovak visa to travel to a conference in Bratislava via Vienna airport, provided Austria gives its consent. Italy’s threat clearly had nothing to do with that rationale – but it achieved its effect. Member states now have the means, it appears, to undermine the solidarity of the Schengen area.