EUROPE: U.S. Visa Puts Allies at Odds

By Zoltán Dujisin Reprint | | Print |

Zoltán Dujisin

PRAGUE, Sep 21 2007 (IPS) - Negotiations for a new visa regime between the United States and the European Union (EU) have driven another wedge between the EU&#39s older, Western members and the Eastern European countries that recently joined.

Citizens of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia, all EU member states since 2004, still need to apply for U.S. visas, unlike most of their Western neighbours.

The visa controversy is one of the few issues capable of casting a shadow on U.S.-Central Eastern Europe relations.

The new U.S. visa regime is part of a tightening of security. But Washington has for years promised it would include Eastern European EU members in a visa-waiver programme.

"There has been some opposition within the U.S. administration, for instance from the Homeland Security Department, that pointed to the possibility of terrorists obtaining passports from &#39unsafe countries&#39 that were part of the waiver programme," Svetlozar Andreev, political scientist at the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid told IPS.

A set of new regulations approved by Washington last August provides for those states the U.S. considers allies to achieve visa waiver status if their visa refusal rate in the previous year was beneath 10 percent.

But the EU&#39s Western countries have expressed dissatisfaction with the new set of criteria, as that will mean additional hurdles for citizens travelling to the U.S., and would allow Washington to obtain information on arriving passengers in advance.

Conversely, many of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) would be satisfied with entering the visa waiver programme even under those conditions, but are concerned they won’t meet the refusal rate criteria.

Western European states have questioned the necessity of the security rules, and demand that the EU lifts the visa requirements for all EU member states, whereas some CEEC countries have indicated willingness to reach bilateral agreements.

The EU Commission has repeatedly called for the U.S. to treat the Union as one, and issue the waiver for all of its 27 member states. Commission officials have also had to warn those EU members seeking bilateral agreements that visa and security policy involving the sharing of confidential data are under EU jurisdiction.

Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg has retorted that the CEEC "do not want to depend on the EU&#39s long-drawn-out negotiations with the United States."

The argument finds support among those who think Western states should give up a little to help CEEC citizens become fully acknowledged as "citizens of the Western world", as Slovak daily Sme put it.

"In the short run, Western European travellers are penalised by these new procedures, while Eastern Europeans might hope for a substantial alleviation of their plight to formally apply for U.S. visas," Andreev said.

"But the East-West tension might be resolved pretty quickly," the analyst adds. "It&#39s more a technical issue than a political one."

But even if Europe finds common ground, a sense of disillusionment prevails among many people in the CEEC who would like to see the U.S. facilitate mutual contacts in the educational, scientific and business spheres, now hampered by long bureaucratic procedures.

The new regulation has also disappointed officials in Eastern Europe who, while recognising the U.S. right to control who enters the country, were hoping to see their loyalty to transatlantic ideology compensated.

"Some of America&#39s closest allies will still be subject to artificial barriers that do not reflect their deep level of commitment and engagement in enhancing transatlantic and global security," reads a statement by all the CEEC countries except Hungary, which welcomed the regulations as a step forward.

The refusal rate barrier will pose serious challenges for several of the CEEC countries, whose refusal rates, while dwindling, are mostly above the 10 percent set by the U.S.

Poland, one of the most faithful allies of the U.S., saw a refusal rate of 26 percent in 2006; Slovakia and Hungary are slightly above 10 percent, whereas Estonia and the Czech Republic are currently meeting the criteria by a narrow margin.

Some officials of countries involved are fearful that the U.S., which is interested in building an anti-missile defence system on Polish territory, will delay the process until Poland does what the U.S. wants.

The CEEC are pushing for an amendment to the law through a Czech-lead Coalition for Visa Equality. The group has hired a lobbying firm that seeks to win over U.S. Congress representatives.

Applications for U.S. visas are described often as a humiliating process that involves paying a 100 dollar fee, obtaining various financial and labour certificates, and then enduring long queues outside U.S. embassy offices.

The process is said to be discretionary, causing unnecessary expenses for applicants, and frequently resulting in unexplained refusals. It is common for consular employees to suspect individuals applying for tourist visas of seeking employment in the U.S.

U.S. citizens enjoy far more favourable conditions when travelling or moving to Europe.