Chief Adviser to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Franak Viačorka has commented to Reform.news on the new five-year migration strategy presented yesterday by the European Commission. There is no talk of a visa ban for Belarusian citizens, Viačorka believes.
“There has been news about an alleged visa ban for Belarusians in the new EU migration strategy. This does not correspond to reality: nothing of the sort is stated in the strategy itself. What was mentioned were comments by a European commissioner about ‘targeted restrictive measures to suspend, refuse, or limit visa applications in response to hostile actions by third countries that undermine EU security.’ But this has always existed, and it refers specifically to targeted measures. Moreover, visas are not within the competence of the European Commission: decisions on issuing them are primarily made by member states,” he explained.
As a reminder, yesterday the European Commission presented a new five-year migration strategy. In the strategy, EU visa policy is viewed as an instrument of migration diplomacy and security, including mechanisms for suspending or restricting the issuance of visas to citizens of third countries. The document explicitly names Belarus and Russia as states that have generated new forms of hybrid threats to the EU, in which migration is used for political purposes. In this context, the continued issuance of visas, including tourist visas, to citizens of countries regarded as sources of security threats to the EU may be deemed inadvisable.
“The visa situation overall remains at the same level as last year. Worse than before COVID, but significantly better than in some other countries and better than it could have been. The refusal rate also remains low. The main problems are, of course, related to capacity, security, and a shortage of consular staff. We advocate multiple-entry and long-term visas as a solution,” Viačorka noted.
He added that a meeting of the contact group, including on this issue, will take place in early March.
According to Viačorka, the migration strategy does not mention Belarus in any specific way. It merely outlines general recommendations — to refuse visas in a targeted manner if there are threats.
“These are recommendations; they do not have binding legal force. Countries issue visas independently. Currently, the leaders are Italy, France, Germany, and Hungary — they issue the largest number of Schengen visas to Belarusians and operate at maximum capacity. We are very grateful to them for this,” he added.
