By Daisy Ayliffe - 18th June 2006
This week’s transatlantic summit will be overshadowed by sensitive questions over Washington’s visa requirements for new EU members.
Brussels will use the Vienna gathering to call on the US to extend its visa waiver programme to all EU citizens.A 'waiver' deal exempting EU citizens from lengthy and costly visa requirements when travelling to America does not apply to nine of the ten countries that entered Europe on May 1 2004.
Currently only new EU member Slovenia is included in the visa-free travel scheme while old Europe country Greece is excluded on security grounds.
Last month the US Senate imposed strict criteria on the American visa programme – rules that exclude virtually all of the EU’s new member states from participating.
Under guidelines yet to be agreed by Congress only those EU countries that helped the US in Iraq or Afghanistan with a unit of at least 300 soldiers and who do not pose a security risk will be included.
The only new EU country that fulfils these conditions is Poland, leaving eight other countries such as the Czech Republic out in the cold.
“The US has to act on this now,” a European commission source declared on Monday. “We have not seen real progress on this even though president Bush has said he wants to lift restrictions on visa free travel.”
The EU executive will issue a report on US visa rules at the start of July after asking new member states for patience when they joined back in April 2004.
“But if we do not see any progress at the summit then I am afraid the report will be a negative one,” a commission source added.
EU member states excluded from a waiver scheme enjoyed by others could invoke solidarity procedures and spark a visa war.
Energy security will also be at the top of the agenda at the gathering in Austria.
In a statement on Monday, the commission said they hoped to strengthen EU-US strategic cooperation on energy and “advance principles of good practice in energy markets.”
Iran, the Middle East and the promotion of democracy are expected to dominate the foreign policy agenda.
But EU sources were keen to stress that they would not be kowtowing to the US over foreign affairs at this week’s summit.
“The EU is very much engaged in democracy promotion and we do not do this because the US do - we have been promoting democracy longer than the US. They have taken on board our approach.”
And for the first time in many years, Washington will work with Brussels to face up to the challenges of climate change.
“Since 2001 our fears over climate change have not found echoes in the US,” a commission source said.
“It seems they are finally coming round and it is likely we will establish an EU-US agreement on climate change.”
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.