Berlin and Paris cooperate to reject proposal to prevent Russians from obtaining visas to enter the European Union
Germany and France rejected a proposal to completely ban Russian citizens from entering the European Union in a joint position paper.
“We must think of smarter ways to use the important means of issuing visas,” said the position paper, which was sent to other EU countries ahead of the meeting of foreign ministers to be held in Prague on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While the paper agreed to severely scrutinize visa applications by Russian citizens given potential security risks, it cautioned against underestimating “the transformative power of life in democracies from personal experience”.
“Our visa policies should reflect this and continue to allow people to communicate with each other directly in the European Union with Russian citizens who are not associated with the Russian government,” added the paper, seen by German news agency dpa.
The paper advocated maintaining the current legal framework to allow students, artists, scientists and other key professionals to enter the EU, regardless of whether they face political persecution personally in Russia.
