EU adds Columbia, Peru and UAE to visa-free travel list. Published on : Tuesday, October 22, 2013. The Civil Liberties Committee on Monday said citizens of Colombia, Peru and the United Arab Emirates should be able to travel to the Schengen area of EU without a visa, amending a draft update of the EU visa regulation to this effect. The Commission’s initial proposal had initially envisaged a visa waiver only for citizens of five Caribbean island nations, 10 Pacific island nations and Timor-Leste. The 2001 visa regulation lists non-EU countries whose nationals need a visa to travel to the EU’s border-free Schengen area (the “negative list”) and those whose nationals do not need a visa for this purpose (the “positive list”). The committee added Colombia and Peru to the visa-free list, claiming that they meet the conditions laid down in the regulation for a visa waiver. The European Parliament gave its green light to trade deals with these two Latin American countries in December 2012. “The determination of the third countries whose nationals are subject to the visa requirement, and those exempt from it, is governed by a considered, case-by-case assessment of a variety of criteria relating inter alia to irregular immigration, public policy and security, and to the EU’s external relations with third countries including in particular respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, consideration also being given to the implications of regional coherence and reciprocity”, MEPs say. MEPs also added the United Arab Emirates to the positive list. This revision of the visa regulation was initially intended only to add five Caribbean island nations (Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago), 10 Pacific island nations (Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) and Timor-Leste to the visa-free list
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 21:42:24 +0000
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