The German government proposed, on Tuesday, a compromise, while countries favorable to measures aimed at limiting the movements of the Russians in Europe following the invasion of Ukraine come up against a strong resistance of several Member States.
Le Monde with AFP
As expected, the subject of the circulation of Russian tourists in the European Union (EU) gave rise, Tuesday, August 30 in Prague, to a hard debate between the ministers of foreign affairs of the member states.
The Czech Republic, which currently provides the presidency of the EU, wants to suspend the 2007 agreement which facilitated visa requests for Russian tourists, and other states have even requested a pure and simple prohibition of visas .
“There is no place for tourism,” said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, to journalists, adding that this measure “would send a signal to the elite of Moscow and Saint-Saint Petersburg “, now free to travel.
But other states, such as Hungary, Luxembourg or Austria, have risen against this measure. “I do not think that the prohibition of visa is an appropriate decision in the current circumstances,” said Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijjarto, whose country has kept close ties with the Kremlin.
No “new iron curtain in Europe”
The Luxembourg minister, Jean Asselborn, also protested a measure affecting ordinary Russians. “We must not have a new iron curtain in Europe,” he said. “We all agreed from the start that it was the war [of the Russian president Vladimir] Putin.”
His French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, proposed to “distinguish between the war fairs, at the forefront of which the Russian president, his entourage and all those who support his war effort, and the Russian citizens, the artists, the students, journalists for example “.
“And these, we wish, and we must, continue to have links with them,” added M me colonna, recalling that the Russian oligarchs, under individual sanctions, will not come not “do their shopping neither in France nor in Europe”.
The Austrian colleague, Alexander Schallenberg, said that the EU should not “make a categorical judgment on 140 million people” in Russia.
the German compromise
The Czech Republic ceased to issue visas to the Russians, with a few exceptions, on February 25, one day after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The neighbors of Russia – Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – have urged Brussels to prohibit deliver Russian tourists for the Schengen space.
According to the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Reinsalu, it is time to target ordinary Russians, after the suspension of the granting of visas to official delegations and Russian business leaders.
“These silent private persons should also understand that there are consequences for war,” he said. “What is literally paid for by the money of their taxes are the bombs which, now, literally, at the moment, kill Ukrainian children and bomb (…) hospitals, children’s gardens, schools”.
The German government proposed a compromise on Tuesday. “This can be a very good way to clearly say that we suspend the agreements on the facilitation of visas, that we no longer issue multiple visas or visas of several years,” said the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, who wants to “bring together the different points of view” within the EU to find a common European solution.