More and more EU countries no longer want to issue tourist visas to Russians. Legally, the matter is not so simple, warns Brussels.
When the EU foreign ministers meet in Prague’s Congress Center on August 30 after the summer break, a heated debate awaits them: Should Russians continue to receive tourist visas from the EU or not? This question is currently dividing the Union, and the discussion is picking up speed every day. In addition to Helsinki, Copenhagen, Prague and Warsaw, the Baltic governments in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are also calling for an immediate freeze on the award of contracts – and with it the end of regular trips by Russian citizens to the EU. “I don’t think it’s right that Russians can enter the Schengen area as tourists and go sightseeing while Russia is killing people in Ukraine,” Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said earlier this week.
Russian vacationers can currently only get to the EU directly overland via neighboring countries – i.e. via Finland, Estonia or Latvia – since air traffic was stopped after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine. Like the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries have already severely restricted the issuing of visas, and Finland intends to follow next month. Other member states – Denmark is one of them – are waiting for an EU-wide solution. With good reason, because the national freeze on granting makes little sense in the 26-state Schengen area (including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland in addition to 22 EU countries): the visa from one country entitles you to enter any other country. For this reason alone, the pressure to bring about an EU-wide solution in the near future is likely to increase in the coming weeks.