Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) called on the EU Council to start negotiations on exempting Georgian citizens from EU visa requirements “without any further delay”.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to the Slovak Presidency, MEPs called on the Council to open trilogue talks “as soon as possible at the beginning of November.”
The LIBE committee voted on September 5 in favor of opening inter-institutional negotiations on Georgia’s visa waiver proposal – a legislative procedure when the European Parliament enters into negotiations on a legislative proposal with other EU institutions, including the Council, whose approval is also required for the visa liberalisation to enter into force.
A month later, on October 5 the Committee of EU ambassadors in Brussels (Coreper), on behalf of the EU Council, agreed a negotiating position on visa liberalisation for Georgia.
MEPs from LIBE Committee noted that there is no real reason for delaying the talks on Georgia´s visa waiver, given that both the Parliament and the Council have approved mandates, following the confirmation by the Commission that the country has fulfilled all criteria.
In its October 5 decision, the Council made it clear that the entry into force of visa liberalisation for Georgia should be at the same time as the entry into force of the new, easier and faster visa-free suspension mechanism.
MEPs complained in their letter that the Council decided that “trilogues would not start before an agreement on the revision of the suspension mechanism is reached with the European Parliament”. They underlined that the interinstitutional discussions on the review of the suspension mechanism – which allows a temporary reintroduction of visa requirements in certain situations – are ongoing, with negotiators actively seeking solutions on the remaining open issues.
The suspension mechanism enables EU members to temporarily reintroduce visa requirements for third-country nationals in the event of sudden surges in irregular immigration, unfounded asylum applications or a failure to cooperate with the EU on return of irregular migrants.
“We cannot but regret the delay the Council statement has caused in the negotiations on visa liberalisation with Georgia”, committee chair Claude Moraes and rapporteur Mariya Gabriel said in their letter.
"Our guiding principle is that every country that meets all the benchmarks can benefit from visa liberalisation, and that is the case of Georgia”, Mariya Gabriel said, insisting that the EU must deliver on its promises.
“There should be no further delay to move” on this file, she added, and reminded that visa liberalisation represents, in the context of the EU-Georgia partnership and the Eastern Partnership, a very concrete achievement for citizens.
