On December 30, 2023, the EU Council endorsed Bulgaria and Romania’s entry into the Schengen area, starting with the lifting of air and maritime border controls from March 31, 2024. This decision, marking a 12-year negotiation period, is a significant stride towards their full integration into the Schengen zone, as acknowledged by Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez. The EU Commission, with President von der Leyen at the forefront, commended this move, seeing it as a boost to travel, trade, and tourism, and an enhancement of the internal market. This step for Bulgaria and ..read more

Today, 16 May 2023, the European Commission presented the second State of Schengen annual report, which contains a series of proposed actions for the Council Presidencies to consider through the Schengen Council. The most recent achievements to improve the Schengen area, but mainly the key measures and actions that are being suggested in the report will actually be the starting point for political discussions and steer at the Schengen Council on 8 June 2023. Some of the achievements mentioned in the report include: The expansion of the Schengen area through the integration of Croatia to the ..read more

Today, 29 March 2023, the ambassadors of the Member States of the European Union have come to a consensus on the Council’s negotiating mandate concerning the legislative proposal on the digitalization of the Schengen visa. The goal of this legislative proposal is to introduce a new digital Schengen visa that will facilitate things for legitimate travelers and reduce certain security risks related to the physical visa. Specifically, the new digital visa would be a cryptographically signed 2D barcode that would supplant the current visa sticker, which can be stolen or falsified. As for the new a ..read more

On 23 March 2023, President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic revealed that he intends to remove the Schengen visa requirement so that all the people from his country can travel to the European Union with ease. Additionally, he said that he expects the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to support his Schengen visa exemption proposal. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, João Gomes Cravinho, arrived in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, last Wednesday night. Today, the Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader and the ..read more

The launch of the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) has been postponed from November 2023 to 2024. No specific dates or months have been disclosed. The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) is a new travel authorization system aimed at travelers from countries that do not currently require a visa to enter the Schengen area. It is an automated IT system designed to improve security in the EU by identifying potential security risks and preventing them from entering the Schengen area. It will do this by screening travelers against various database ..read more

Today, January 31st, 2023, members of the European Parliament decided to adopt a European Commission’s proposal on the digitalization of visa procedures. This represents the end of physical stickers and physical applications for Schengen visas. Slovenian rapporteur Matjaž Nemec emphasized that physical stickers pose several security risks. And physical applications cost money and effort, according to the European Parliament. The latest modification of the EU’s Visa Code introduced electronic signs in visa applications. Now, in order to fully digitize visa application procedures, there must be ..read more

On January 1st, 2023, Croatia joined both the Eurozone and Schengen area. This means that from now on, Croatians will be using the euro as a currency and will not encounter checks at internal borders with other countries in the Schengen area.  In fact, checks at internal land and sea borders between Croatia and the other countries in the Schengen Area have already been removed, although checks at internal air borders won’t be lifted until 26 March 2023 to coincide with the dates of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) summer/winter time schedule.  According to a press r ..read more

In a Communication published on 16 November 2022, the European Commission called upon the EU Council to accept the full participation of Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia in the Schengen Area. This implies the removal of internal border controls with these Member States, which the Commission states in the document that will make Europe safer (through reinforced protection of Schengen Area’s common external borders), more prosperous (through the elimination of time lost at borders and facilitation of people or business contacts), and more attractive (because this decision would result in the expan ..read more

The European Union has suspended its visa-free travel agreement with Vanuatu, which allowed Vanuatu citizens to travel and stay in the European Union without a visa for 90 days in a 180-day period.  This is due to the investor citizenship schemes that Vanuatu offers. These  “golden passport” schemes have been raising security concerns in the European Union since it started investigating them in 2017.  “Based on careful monitoring and assessment of Vanuatu’s investor citizenship schemes, the EU has concluded that they present serious deficiencies which could pose a risk to t ..read more