**Estonia will be able to bar entry to Russians with Schengen visas issued by other EU Member States as the EU’s treaties allow such a step, Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsau (Isamaa) said on Wednesday.**
Estonia has invalidated tourist visas it has issued to Russian citizens and those holding them will not be able to enter the country from August 18.
The government now wants to go further and ban Russian tourists with Schengen visas issued by all EU countries.
A proposal will be formalized by the end of the week, Veiko Kommusaar, undersecretary for internal security of the Ministry of the Interior, told ERR on Wednesday.
Reinsalu told ERR an EU-wide ban is a reasonable goal and experts are analyzing the technical aspects.
He said it is allowed under European Union law, adding one example is the coronavirus pandemic when Member States closed their own borders to citizens of other countries.
“EU law even allows prohibiting the EU’s own citizens from entering certain Member States. We all remember how countries not only closed the EU foreign border but also internal ones. The EU founding treaty provides possible exceptions following public order, security, which is the case here, but also public health considerations. The precedent allowed very extensive restrictions to be ordered. The number of Russian citizens that had entered the EU by the end of the first week of august (850,000) is unfortunately growing, which is why we need to be able to take steps to support Ukraine’s victory,” Reinsalu said.
Reinsalu said the ultimate goal is a pan-European visa ban for Russian citizens and work is being undertaken to achieve this.
“Our aim is definitely to achieve a Europe-wide agreement to restrict Russian citizens’ access to the EU. We are working on finding common ground with states that have a land border with Russia. As concerns closing the Estonian land border, our experts are working on it,” he said.
Reinsalu met with Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto on Wednesday. Both Estonia and Finland have already taken steps to limit the number of Russians entering their countries and agree on an EU-wide ban, along with Latvia and Lithuania.
Equating the Government’s decisions with the innocent people…. Why?….theres no common sense
If the Russians are more bothered by being banned from the European Union than by their war against Ukraine, they have a problem. In any case, the tourist visa is not a right, it is a privilege and therefore, the states can deny it. Visas to Russians for humanitarian reasons still stand. Russia cannot propose a war against Europe and at the same time the Russians want to come and spend their vacations in Europe. Sorry Russians. You still can go to Venezuela, North Korea or Iran.
Russia keeps saying Europe is full of Nazis. I’m just glad Europe will finally do something about it–by preventing them from leaving Russia.
This is a terrible idea.
The ban targets the whole Russian nation regardless of whether anyone does or does not support the war and makes it much harder for anyone opposed to Putin to escape from Russia. In essense, this leads to the oppositve effect of what they are claiming.
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**Estonia will be able to bar entry to Russians with Schengen visas issued by other EU Member States as the EU’s treaties allow such a step, Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsau (Isamaa) said on Wednesday.**
Estonia has invalidated tourist visas it has issued to Russian citizens and those holding them will not be able to enter the country from August 18.
The government now wants to go further and ban Russian tourists with Schengen visas issued by all EU countries.
A proposal will be formalized by the end of the week, Veiko Kommusaar, undersecretary for internal security of the Ministry of the Interior, told ERR on Wednesday.
Reinsalu told ERR an EU-wide ban is a reasonable goal and experts are analyzing the technical aspects.
He said it is allowed under European Union law, adding one example is the coronavirus pandemic when Member States closed their own borders to citizens of other countries.
“EU law even allows prohibiting the EU’s own citizens from entering certain Member States. We all remember how countries not only closed the EU foreign border but also internal ones. The EU founding treaty provides possible exceptions following public order, security, which is the case here, but also public health considerations. The precedent allowed very extensive restrictions to be ordered. The number of Russian citizens that had entered the EU by the end of the first week of august (850,000) is unfortunately growing, which is why we need to be able to take steps to support Ukraine’s victory,” Reinsalu said.
Reinsalu said the ultimate goal is a pan-European visa ban for Russian citizens and work is being undertaken to achieve this.
“Our aim is definitely to achieve a Europe-wide agreement to restrict Russian citizens’ access to the EU. We are working on finding common ground with states that have a land border with Russia. As concerns closing the Estonian land border, our experts are working on it,” he said.
Reinsalu met with Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto on Wednesday. Both Estonia and Finland have already taken steps to limit the number of Russians entering their countries and agree on an EU-wide ban, along with Latvia and Lithuania.
Equating the Government’s decisions with the innocent people…. Why?….theres no common sense
If the Russians are more bothered by being banned from the European Union than by their war against Ukraine, they have a problem. In any case, the tourist visa is not a right, it is a privilege and therefore, the states can deny it. Visas to Russians for humanitarian reasons still stand. Russia cannot propose a war against Europe and at the same time the Russians want to come and spend their vacations in Europe. Sorry Russians. You still can go to Venezuela, North Korea or Iran.
Russia keeps saying Europe is full of Nazis. I’m just glad Europe will finally do something about it–by preventing them from leaving Russia.
This is a terrible idea.
The ban targets the whole Russian nation regardless of whether anyone does or does not support the war and makes it much harder for anyone opposed to Putin to escape from Russia. In essense, this leads to the oppositve effect of what they are claiming.