
Parliament asks EU Commission to press for full US-EU visa reciprocity - mantesso
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20170227IPR64156/parliament-asks-eu-commission-to-press-for-full-us-eu-visa-reciprocity
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tuna-piano
Very curious to see what will happen. My sense says that US citizens won't
need a visa for European travel... it would be very inconvenient for both
Europe and the US (and also bad for the politicians).

My biggest question is who will give in, Europe or the US? If I recall, the US
keeps good records of the percent of people from each country that commit
crime, overstay their visa, etc. There has been some kerfuffle that we require
citizens of one of the US' best friends, Israel, visas. But the US backs up
that requirement showing the percentage of Israelis in America engaged in
various activities. I'd imagine the same is similair for Romania / Bulgaria.
So the US has good reasons.

At the same time, Europeans have a lot of pride and don't like thinking
America controls them.

My uneducated guess: the Europeans strong need to not be controlled by America
will mean that Europe will either implement, or give one last ultimatum and
then implement.

US citizens will start calling their congress people when they realize they
need a visa for their trip to Rome. I'd guess the congress people will give in
and make the change, as there aren't so many Bulgarian / Romanian people
causing trouble compared with angry travelers wanting to travel.

If the rule does get implemented, then the question would be, who is the
greater political force: the European tourism industry losing revenue or the
American traveling citizenry dealing with hassles?

~~~
akmarinov
Well, all the EU parliament can do is ask. If the commission refuses, then
parliament will have to sue the commission for not upholding the law, that can
take a couple of years to resolve and by that time things will probably be a
lot different. The process first began in 2014 and 3 years later, as you can
see nothing has happened, don't expect anything to happen in the next 4-5
years.

~~~
happy_tentacles
Truth be told, the press release is somewhat misleading. European Parliament
is calling on European Commission to take a closer look at own Directive from
2001 (3 years before the countries in question joined the club).

The European Parliament has run this file through a non-legislative procedure,
which explains why the press release says "urge the Commission" and places the
time limit for action in quotes.

While it is a clear indication of what Members of the European Parliament
stand for, there is no immediate legal implications of it - political yes...
The European Parliament is a curious legal construct.

There is a plenty of wiggle room to avoid any direct action by the European
Commission.

~~~
nyordanov
IMO, one of the major EU-related things that people are not aware of is that
the European Parliament doesn't possess legislative initiative. EU laws are
initiated by the European Commission (or) at the request of one or more member
states.

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jasode
_> Citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania still cannot
enter US territory without a visa, while US citizens can travel to all EU
countries visa-free._

The submitted article is more like a newswire bulletin rather than an
explanatory story. Therefore, many readers (especially those in USA) will not
have the background on why those particular countries don't have visa
exemptions. One link I found has a little more info. E.g. USA wants more data
exchange (ostensibly to screen terrorists) and those countries haven't
complied.

[https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-
affairs/news/e...](https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-
affairs/news/eu-gives-us-six-months-to-come-clean-on-visa-policy/)

~~~
gambiting
The reason why Polish citizens still need visas to US is that in the 90s,
right after fall of communism in the country, a LOT of people went to US on
tourist visas and simply stayed. By the time US was reconsidering whether to
grant visa-free travel to certain European countries, Poland was above the
arbitrarily chosen % of people who traveled to US on tourist visas and stayed,
so it was decided that visas for Poles would remain a requirement.

Fast forward to now, and it's almost silly - I don't know any young Poles who
would want to work in the US, literally any EU country is a better choice, and
I know loads of people working in France, Spain, Germany, UK, Italy, Austria
and Sweden, to name a few. US was a massive thing 27 years ago when people got
passports for the first time and US was the big world, but nowadays? With its
difficult job market, expensive healthcare, barely any employee protections,
why would we go there?

I'd still love to visit to see all the touristy places in the US, but the idea
of spending hundreds of dollars just go get to a nearest embassy, have to talk
to a consul, prove to them that I am definitely not going to US to work, pay
to get a visa, and then have to stress over whether TSA agents are having a
good or a bad day and whether they will want to search my phone/laptop or not
- no, thanks.

~~~
MichaelGG
>why would we go there?

Not a general response, but at least for tech jobs, salaries in the US are
excellent. Money isn't everything but from what I see, you take a huge pay cut
working anywhere but the US. Even Canada doesn't come close to competing.

~~~
krzyk
If you take into account the cost of living (and taxes), some other countries
might look more interesting.

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thrillgore
As someone who really wants to return to Europe in the next couple of years
for vacation, this really complicates matters.

