What if/Can a Schengen country decide to be visa-free to a country on its own?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 26 Jul, 2023
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Not really, no. The Schengen acquis includes commitments that the countries "shall endeavour to approximate their visa policies as soon as possible in order to avoid the adverse consequences in the field of immigration and security that may result from easing checks at the common borders." For several decades, this process has meant that the European Commission publishes lists as EU regulations—Annex I and Annex II—"listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement." The regulation provides that "Nationals of third countries listed in Annex I shall be required to be in possession of a visa when crossing the external borders of the Member States." Since India is an Annex I country, France would violate the regulation if they allowed Indian citizens to enter without a visa.
If a country did do this anyway—they are ultimately in control of their own border guards—it could cause neighboring countries to introduce border checks or generally create a diplomatic incident, just the same as if any EU state violated any other EU regulation to the possible detriment of its neighbors.
Such a move would also present practical problems for travelers. If France unilaterally allowed Indian citizens visa-free access to France, then an Indian citizen flying directly from Delhi to Paris would be admitted, but an Indian citizen flying from Mumbai to Frankfurt to Paris would be denied entry in Germany.
That said, there are some related exceptions. For example, EU regulations allow countries to enter into agreements to issue local border traffic permits with neighboring countries, but this is more akin to a special limited type of visa than visa-free entry. Schengen states are also able to enter into bilateral agreements with other countries to provide more generous terms: some countries allow citizens of some countries to stay longer than the usual 90-in-180 days rule. Other aspects of visa policy are not fully harmonized: different Schengen countries have different visa policies around refugees, for holders of diplomatic, official and service passports, and some Schengen countries have more restrictive policies for transiting their airports without visas. Various other allowances for member states to make their own visa exceptions are listed in Article 6, such as for air and sea crew, disaster response personnel, students on certain school trips, NATO personnel, etc…
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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