http://www.thestar. com/News/ World/article/ 257771
EU threatens Canada with visa restrictions
Sep 18, 2007 08:45 AM
Constant Brand
Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union's top justice official Tuesday
threatened to slap visa restrictions on Canadians travelling to the
27-member bloc if Ottawa did not keep its promise to lift visa
requirements on new EU member states.
Franco Frattini, the EU's justice and home affairs commissioner, called
on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to keep the promises he made to EU
officials at summit talks in June to ensure more visa-free travel for
Europeans going to Canada.
"There will be for sure a discussion about introducing visas for
Canadian citizens," if no progress is made, Frattini told reporters.
He said it was "not enough" that Canada move to ease visas for just one new
member state.
Frattini said he was ready to go to Ottawa later this year to negotiate
with Canadian authorities. "I would keep urging Canadian authorities to
keep to what they have promised," he said.
A spokesman for Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane
Finley said late Monday that Ottawa was committed to lifting
restrictions as soon as possible.
Mike Fraser said Canadian immigration experts would make visits to EU
countries shortly to check out whether Canadian standards for visa-free
travel can be met.
The warning to Ottawa was issued as Frattini presented a report to EU
justice and interior ministers evaluating reciprocal visa rights
between the EU and other countries.
The report called on Canada to "show some tangible progress" in
abolishing the visa regime for eight new member states that joined the
EU in 2004.
The eight countries are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania,
Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The EU report also urged Australia and the United States to do more to apply
reciprocal visa-free travel for all EU citizens.
EU officials said they were holding off on criticizing Washington over
its long-standing refusal to expand its visa-waiver program to new
member states, until new legislation in the U.S. come into force and
are fully assessed by the EU.
Portugal's Interior Minister Rui Pereira said the new U.S. system
allows "equal treatment" for all 27 EU member states, adding it was "a
step in the right direction."
U.S. President George W. Bush signed a law in August that expands a
program allowing visa-free travel to the US for more European
countries. However, some EU countries, including Poland might not meet
stringent security requirements to participate in the program.
The EU report said that full visa-free travel for all EU citizens was now
allowed in Mexico and New Zealand.
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