Suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia and, in particular, abolish multi-year Schengen visas. Such a “medium severity” measure of influence on Russian tourists was proposed by the German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock.
“My proposal, and I think it has a good reason, is to make it clear that we are suspending the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. This step will prevent Russian citizens from receiving multi-year Schengen visas from Germany. Also, in the future, the authorities of the EU countries will more carefully check the purpose for which Russians receive visas,” the head of the German Foreign Ministry said.
At the same time, she noted that Germany “is located in the middle of Europe not only geographically”, but also takes a middle position on the issue of a possible ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens – while some EU countries demand to completely stop issuing visas to Russians, and other states, on the contrary , believe that such a step is inappropriate. The proposed measure, i.e. the abolition of at least multi-year visas, according to her, would be a “good bridge” to resolve internal differences in the EU.
However, the German Foreign Minister specified that it is necessary to maintain the possibility of obtaining Schengen visas for people in the categories necessary to support European values - such as students and people who, according to her, are being persecuted in Russia for political reasons.
What other problems for Russian tourists can the EU's rejection of the agreement cause Read about visa facilitation here.
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