During the plenary session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg (15-18 April 2019), MEPs debate on the new rules on visas for short-stays in the EU. The EU Visa Code, establishes the procedures and conditions for issuing visas to enter the EU for short periods. Statements by Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Rapporteur, Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Isabella DE MONTE (S&D, IT), TRAN and Heinz K. BECKER (EPP, AT).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Juan Fernando (S&D, ES)

AVRAMOPOULOS, Dimitris (EL, EC)

visa policy (T)

BECKER, Heinz K. (EPP, AT)

external border of the EU

DE MONTE, Isabella (S&D, IT)

visa policy

Visa code: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, We're talking about entry also for licit or perfectly legitimate purposes, what we call bona fide travellers. Travellers who come for a short visit between 90 and 180 days is the maximum they may be coming as tourists for business purposes or for artistic or cultural or research purposes. All of these possibilities are covered in these European visas.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Juan Fernando L&Oacute;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, We have struck a reasonable balance to ensure that the conditions governing authorisation of people to access the European Union will be harmonised and harmonized fees also for these visas and harmonised application forms and harmonization also of documents to be provided.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Juan Fernando L&Oacute;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, I come from an outermost region, the Canary Islands which is visited by 18 million tourists every year. So it's very important for us to ensure that it remains easy for bona fide visitors to come into the Schengen area.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, The agreed changes will make it easier for millions of travellers to obtain a visa to come to the European Union every year, facilitating tourism, trade and business. Making the process easier will not mean a free pass to the European Union, nor more lax security checks. The new rules will actually improve and strengthen our security standards to detect those who pose a threat or have no right to enter the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, A moderate increase of the Schengen visa fee from 60 euros to 80 euros is also suggested in order to secure additional resources for strengthening security.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Isabella DE MONTE (S&amp;D, IT), TRAN, It's a shame that the chance was not taken to tackle the outdated restriction that exists, that prevents legitimate travellers from staying longer in the Schengen area without exceeding the statutory thresholds of the individual member state. The European Parliament has several times now shown its support to to allow these people to stay longer.

SOUNDBITE (German), Heinz K. BECKER (EPP, AT), What we have achieved is that in the future we will be able to have easier relationships to third countries who are going to see new growth in in commerce in tourism, culture, sport etc. And I think one of the key objectives of the E.P. was realised here, at the end of the day the left have given up the result, is this connection to the return of irregular migrants to third country.