PURPOSE: to conclude the Agreement between the
European Union and the Federated States of Micronesia on the
short-stay visa waiver.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the
act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act.
BACKGROUND: Regulation
(EU) No 509/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council
amended Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries
whose nationals must be in possession of a visa when crossing the
external borders of the Member States and those whose nationals are
exempt from that requirement.
Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 was adopted on 20 May 2014
and entered into force on 9 June 2014. It is applied by all Member
States with the exception of Ireland and the United
Kingdom.
In July 2014, the Commission presented a
Recommendation to the Council to authorise it to start negotiations
on visa waiver agreements with each of the following 17
countries.
The first series of visa waiver agreements
were signed on 6 May 2015 (United Arab
Emirates), 26 May 2015 (Timor-Leste) and 28 May 2015 (Dominica,
Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa,
Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu) and provisionally apply from the
date of signature pending their entry into force. The Council has
authorised the signature of a second series of visa waiver
agreements with Tonga (signed on 20 November 2015), Colombia
(signed on 2 December 2015), Kiribati (date of signature to be
determined) and Palau (signed on 7 December 2015). These four
agreements provisionally apply from the day following the date of
signature pending their entry into force.
The negotiations with Micronesia were opened on 17
December 2014. The agreement was initialled by an exchange of
letters between the chief negotiators on 16 December 2015
(Micronesia) and 13 January 2016 (Union). The Commission
considers that the objectives set by the Council in its negotiating
directives were attained and that the draft visa waiver agreement
is acceptable to the Union.
CONTENT: the Commission calls on the Council to adopt
a decision aiming to approve the Agreement between the European
Union and the Federated States of Micronesia on the short-stay visa
waiver.
The final content of the agreement may be summarised
as follows:
Purpose and duration of stay: the agreement provides for visa-free travel for the
citizens of the European Union and for the citizens of Micronesia
when travelling to the territory of the other Contracting Party for
a maximum period of 90 days in any 180-day period. A joint
declaration on the interpretation of this period of 90 days in any
180-day period is attached to the agreement.
The agreement takes into account the situation of
the Member States that do not yet apply the Schengen acquis in
full. As long as they are not part of the Schengen area without
internal borders, the visa waiver confers a right for the nationals
of Micronesia to stay for 90 days in any 180-day on the territory
of each of those Member States (currently Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus
and Romania), independently of the period calculated for the whole
Schengen area.
A provision has been included in the agreement stating
that Micronesia may suspend or terminate the agreement only
in respect of all the Member States of the European Union and that
the Union may also only suspend or terminate the agreement in
respect of all of its Member States.
Scope: the visa waiver
covers all categories of persons (ordinary,
diplomatic, service/official and special passport holders)
travelling for all kinds of purposes, except for the purpose of
carrying out a paid activity. For those travelling to
carry out a paid activity, each Member State and also Micronesia
remain free to impose the visa requirement on the citizens of the
other Party in accordance with the applicable Union or national
law. A joint declaration is attached to the agreement on the
interpretation of the category of persons travelling for the
purpose of carrying out a paid activity.
Territorial application:
in the case of France and the Netherlands, the visa waiver would
entitle nationals of Micronesia to stay only in those Member
States’ European territories.
The provisions of the Agreement do not apply to the
United Kingdom or to Ireland.
A joint declaration on the association of Norway,
Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the implementation,
application and development of the Schengen acquis is annexed to
the agreement.
Lastly, the Agreement sets up a Joint Committee of
experts for the management of the Agreement.