EU diplomatic representative: disagreement with all Russians' suspension of visas

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 29. The senior representative of the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy, Hesep Berry, said on the 28th that he did not agree with the proposal of a minority member country and banned all Russians from entering the EU. "This is not a good idea".

Berley does not consider EU member states to agree to adopt this policy to sanction Russia.

Disaggree "one -size -fits -all"

"I don't agree with all Russians' visas." Berry said in an interview with Austrian Broadcasting Corporation on the evening of the 28th. He said that it is necessary to re -examine some of the visa applications of some Russians, such as "Russian oligarchs must not be approved", but "we must choose to choose, not one knife", because "cutting off the relationship between the European Union and the Russian civilians will not produce positive results. "".

On July 18, Boerley, a senior representative of the EU diplomacy and security policy, hosted the EU Foreign Minister's Association in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong)

Berrelli will host an EU Foreign Minister's informal meeting held in the Czech capital Prague from August 30th to 31st. He believes that foreign ministers from various countries will reach a "balance" position. It is forbidden to obtain all 27 member states such as a major measures such as the entry of a country in the EU.

The British "Financial Times" previously reported that in the context of the Ukrainian crisis, some EU member states were preparing to suspend the implementation of the visa simplified agreement signed by the European Union and Russia in 2007. At the informal foreign minister meeting, representatives of various countries would vote on this issue. If it is approved, it will mean that after the European Union has suspended officials and business visas to Russian government officials and big entrepreneurs since late February, the scope of the implementation of entry restrictions to all Russian civilians will be expanded to all Russian civilians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law of "retaliated visa measures for adverse foreign behaviors" in early April, announcing that the Russian Federation suspended the implementation of the EU and Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein signed Simplify multiple terms of the visa system agreement.

The Ukrainian administration has recently called on Western countries to close the border with all Russians in order to pressure Russia to change its position. The Kremlin responded that the request of Kyiv was "unreasonable."

Different positions

According to Germany, due to the increase in Russians who entered the European Union's tourism vacation in the summer, some EU countries have called on EU citizens to suspend tourist visas and even comprehensively prohibit Russian citizens from entering the country.

Among the EU member states, except for Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus, the rest have been added with the Schengen Agreement. There are no border inspections between countries of the Schengen Zone, and citizens can travel freely. As long as citizens of other countries get any national visa of the Schengen zone, they can enter and exit all 26 countries in the Schengen area.

Agence France -Presse reported that last year, a total of about 3 million Schengen visas received a total of about 3 million Schengen visas, of which the most applications from Russians were about 536,000.

The German Press reported that the three EU countries of the Czech Republic, Finland, and Estonia were promoting the EU's comprehensive "Russian citizen's ban" measures after their respective restrictions on Russian citizens.

On April 28, tourists visited Paris Plaza on the east of Brandonburg, Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Pengfei)

Agence France -Presse reported that since September 1st, Finland has reduced the number of applications for Russian citizen's tourist visa for daily acceptance by 90%, and 1,000 applications have been accepted averaged daily. As the European Union has closed the lead in Russia, many Russians have taken advantage of Finland to enter other EU countries through Lands, and Finland's move is equivalent to tightening this Russian citizen's entry into European channels.

Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have stopped issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens.

However, in response to further restrictions on Russian citizens' entry, there are also many opposition voices within the European Union. Germany and other countries have stated that they need to be careful about the suspension of tourist visas for Russian citizens or comprehensively prohibiting Russian citizens from entering the EU. The European Commission emphasized that it is necessary to retain the channel for the entry of Russia's "different political opinions" and handle the application for the Russian citizen visa to be "one to discuss." (Shen Min)

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