EU again urges US to negotiate visa waivers with Brussels

Nov 6, 2009, 16:42 GMT

Brussels - The European Union on Friday renewed its appeal to the United States to negotiate its visa waiver programmes with Brussels, rather than with individual member states.

But US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded that the handful of EU countries whose citizens still need a visa to visit the United States face 'different situations'.

Asked during a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels whether the programme may be extended any time soon, Napolitano said: 'It is very different right now to predict which, if any, of those countries will be meeting (US) statutory requirements in the near future.'

A handful of the EU's 27 member states, among them Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, have been unable to satisfy US legal requirements enabling their citizens to visit the country without a visa.

And officials in Brussels have repeatedly criticized Washington for seeking bilateral deals on visa-related issues, rather than treating the EU as unified bloc.

Elmar Brok, a German politician in charge of relations between the European Parliament and the United States, said Washington would have to change tack once the EU's Lisbon Treaty comes into force. The treaty not only grants the European Parliament a greater voice in how the bloc is run, it also seeks to strengthen EU cooperation in many judicial areas, and in transport.

'With Lisbon coming into force, it makes even more sense to talk with the US about visa waiver questions as a whole, rather than with individual member states,' Brok told Napolitano.

'Terrorism and organized crime are cross-border exercises that need cross-border answers. And a joint EU is a better partner for the US than a divided EU,' Brok said.

During her visit to Brussels, Napolitano did not shy away from discussing issues that have at times strained trans-Atlantic relations.

These mostly revolve around finding a balance between citizens' rights and combating global terrorism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Napolitano urged her European hosts not to create a 'false dichotomy' between security and civil liberties and promised to address European concerns about the American Passenger Name Record (PNR), which contains personal details of non-US airline visitors.

The EU and the US recently sealed an extradition agreement and have stepped up their judicial cooperation.