Romanian citizens should also enjoy visa free travel
Csaba Sógor stood up for the enforcement of the European visa policy principles in the European Parliament. The RMDSZ MEP stated that the EU is not yet able to enforce existing visa policy principles included in the regulations in force since January 2014, as the Romanian, Polish, Croatian and Cypriot citizens still need to apply for a visa when travelling to the United States of America, Canada or Australia.
Csaba Sógor voiced his concerns on the 5th of November during the meeting of the EP’s Civil Rights, Justice, and Home Affairs Committee attended by the European Commission's Director General for Home Affairs, Matthias Route.
Regulation 1289/2013 came into force on the 9th of January 2014, introducing a more efficient visa reciprocity mechanism to ensure that third countries, the citizens of which do not need a visa when entering an EU member state, abolish visa obligation for citizens of the EU.
Nevertheless Romanian, Polish, Croatian and Cypriot citizens still need a visa when travelling to the United States, Canada or Australia, even though the countries should ensure visa-free travel for all EU Member States.
In response to MEP Csaba Sógor’s question on what measures may the European Commission take should the countries in question continue to disregard the reciprocity principle, the Director-General said: if the problem is not solved within two years of the EU Member States handing in a notification – that is until February 2016 – the EU has to decide whether or not it will also retract the visa waiver for those third countries.
