EU Set to Finalize Visa-Free Suspension Mechanism for CBI Countries

Moustafa Daly
Cairo

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Should the final legislative steps proceed without delay, the EU’s new visa rule may take effect by the fall of 2025.

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have just reached a provisional agreement to tighten the EU’s visa suspension mechanism. The European Commission proposed these changes in October 2023, and the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted to approve them last March.

The updated rules aim to “address challenges related to visa-free travel” while safeguarding the Schengen area’s integrity, appearing to explicitly target citizenship by investment (CBI) countries with visa-free travel to the EU, among other provisions.

“Visa-free travel to the EU benefits foreign citizens and the EU alike. But if citizens of third countries abuse this advantage, the EU must have all necessary tools in place to correct the situation,” stated Radosław Sikorski, Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs, as part of the EU Commission’s statement on the matter today.

Key reforms in the revised mechanism

The updated regulation expands the grounds for suspending visa-free agreements beyond existing triggers, such as sudden increases in irregular migration, low asylum recognition rates, and security risks. New provisions specifically target:

• Insufficient alignment with EU visa policies, particularly by countries geographically close to the EU, which could facilitate irregular migration.
• CBI programs that grant citizenship without genuine ties to the country in exchange for financial investment.
• Hybrid threats, including state-sponsored manipulation of migration flows.
• Deterioration in external relations, especially concerning human rights violations or breaches of the United Nations Charter.

To enhance the EU’s ability to respond swiftly to such cases, the new rules lower the thresholds for triggering the suspension mechanism. For instance, a 30% increase in asylum applications, overstays, or refused entries will now constitute grounds for action, as will an asylum recognition rate below 20%.

The new mechanism streamlines the process for imposing suspensions, enabling quicker interventions and giving affected countries more time to take remedial action. It also increases the initial visa suspension period from nine to 12 months, and allows an additional 24-month extension if the underlying issues persist.

The new rules would also introduce a targeted approach, enabling the EU to swiftly restrict visa exemptions for specific groups, such as government officials or businessmen, rather than entire populations.

Targeting Caribbean CBIs

One of the most contentious aspects of the reform is its apparent targeting of citizenship by investment programs (CIPs), which have drawn criticism from the EU for what the EU claims to be security risks and undermining the bloc’s visa policies.

The Caribbean CIPs in Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Saint Lucia have faced particular scrutiny. Last year, these nations complied with EU and US demands to strengthen oversight of their CIPs, implementing region-wide CBI reforms that include mandatory interviews, enhanced due diligence, and the introduction of a unified regulatory authority. This has done little to appease the EU, resulting in many Caribbean CIPs viewing the EU’s demands as an ever-moving goalpost.

The EU had already permanently suspended Vanuatu’s visa-free waiver in November 2024.

The US may also apply a travel ban on seven CBI countries, as a new memorandum lists Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Cambodia, and Egypt as nations whose citizens may soon lose partial or full access to the US.

The LIBE Committee has played a pivotal role in advancing these reforms when it approved amendments to the EU’s visa regulations in March, identifying CBI programs as a direct threat to EU security, as these programs don’t usually imply a “genuine link” between investors and host countries.

The committee maintains that CIPs should not leverage visa-free access to the EU for non-discriminatory financial gain.

Final steps before the new rules become law

The provisional agreement between the European Parliament and the Council signals that adoption is imminent, though a few steps remain.

The LIBE committee will now hold final negotiations with the Council and the Commission to finalize the text. MEPs or political groups can object to this plan until midnight on Tuesday, 17 June. If no one objects, the committee will proceed with the final negotiations.

Once negotiations conclude, the European Parliament will vote in a plenary session to approve the final text. The Council will then formally adopt the regulation.

After both institutions adopt the regulation, officials will sign it and publish it in the Official Journal of the EU, making it legally binding for all member states 20 days after the publication date.