EU to Continue Talks With US, Canada to Achieve Visa-Free Regime

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said that the European Commission intensified contacts with the US and Canada to push for full visa waiver reciprocity.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The European Commission has decided to continue its negotiations with the United States and Canada in order to achieve visa lifting for several EU member states, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Wednesday.

"In the past three months, we have intensified contacts with the US and Canada to push for full visa waiver reciprocity. On Monday, I hosted talks with Ministers from Canada, Bulgaria and Romania. What these talks confirmed is a clear perspective of progress in coming months," Avramopoulos said in a statement.

While negotiating with the United States on the issue, it is important to take into account the upcoming presidential elections in the country, the EU commissioner noted.

"The decision the Commission took today was to continue these contacts and to intensify them. In the coming months, we will make it our priority to make progress through continued dialogue with those two strategic partners," he added.

Avramopoulos also recalled that several meetings with the United States and Canada were expected soon, including the EU-Canada summit in October, and the US-EU Justice and Home Affairs ministerial meeting at the end of the year.

On April 12, the European Commission called on the European Parliament and the Council to launch discussion on the temporary visa regime introduction with the United States and Canada, in retaliation for these countries' failure to ensure visa lifting for the EU states.

Both Washington and Ottawa have entry visa requirements for Bucharest and Sofia that joined the European Union in 2007.