European Union | Revised rules for visa suspension mechanism

The European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on revisions of the visa suspension mechanism to address certain challenges related to visa-free travel.

Key Points:

• The revised rules include:
  • New grounds to suspend visa-free regimes, including in cases of insufficient alignment with the European Union’s visa policy and the deterioration of external relations between the EU and visa-free non-EU countries.
  • Lower thresholds to trigger the suspension mechanism and a more flexible procedure to quickly react in case of need.
  • The European Commission will report on any visa-free countries where challenges are identified.
• The revised rules must be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council before being enforced, which will happen 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice Group.

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