Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2015)91 - Signing and provisional application of the Agreement with the United Arab Emirates on the short-stay visa waiver

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dossier COM(2015)91 - Signing and provisional application of the Agreement with the United Arab Emirates on the short-stay visa waiver.
source COM(2015)91 EN
date 05-03-2015
1. POLITICAL AND LEGAL BACKGROUND

Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001[1] lists 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 (EC) No 539/2001 is applied by all Member States, with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council i amended Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 by transferring 19 countries to Annex II, which lists the third countries whose nationals are exempt from the visa requirement. Those 19 countries are: Colombia, Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu. The reference to each of those countries in Annex II is accompanied by a footnote which specifies that 'the exemption from the visa requirement shall apply from the date of entry into force of an agreement on visa exemption to be concluded with the European Union'.

Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 was adopted on 20 May 2014 and entered into force on 9 June 2014. 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: Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu i. On 9 October 2014, the Council addressed negotiating directives to the Commission.

Colombia and Peru are, according to Recital 5 of Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 and the joint declaration issued at the time of adoption, subject to a specific procedure which requires a further assessment of the fulfilment by them of the relevant criteria, before the Commission can present to the Council recommendations for decisions authorising the opening of negotiations on visa waiver agreements with those two countries. They were therefore not included in the above-mentioned Recommendation to the Council. 

The  negotiations on the visa waiver agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were opened on 5 November 2014 in Brussels. During that meeting the entire draft text could be reviewed and agreement was reached on all its aspects. After a number of subsequent informal exchanges, the agreement was initialled by the chief negotiators on 20 November 2014.

The Member States were informed during the meeting of the Visa Working Party of the Council held on 21 November 2014.

On the part of the Union, the legal basis for the agreement is point (a) of Article 77 i of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in conjunction with Article 218 thereof.

The attached proposal constitutes the legal instrument for the signature of the agreement. The Council will decide by qualified majority.

Taking into account the fact that the UAE will be able to complete its internal ratification procedure within a short period of time and that provisional UAE measures to grant visa on arrival to citizens of a number of Member States will elapse in the course of March 2015, with the consequence that such citizens may need to apply in advance for UAE visas, the proposed decision on the signature sets out the provisional application of the agreement as from the date of its signature in accordance with Article 218(5) TFEU. Considering the need for the European Parliament’s consent before the agreement is concluded, the Commission will inform the European Parliament of the provisional application of the agreement.

2. OUTCOME OF THE NEGOTIATIONS

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.

The final content of it can be summarised as follows:

Purpose

The agreement provides for visa-free travel for the citizens of the European Union and for the citizens of the UAE when travelling to the territory of the other Contracting Party for a maximum period of 90 days in any 180-day period.

In order to safeguard equal treatment of all EU citizens, a provision has been included in the agreement stating that the UAE 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.

The specific situation of the United Kingdom and Ireland is reflected in the preamble.

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 this latter category, each Member State and also the UAE remain free to impose the visa requirement on the citizens of the other Party in accordance with the applicable Union or national law. In order to ensure harmonised implementation, 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.

Duration of stay

The agreement provides for visa-free travel for the citizens of the European Union and for the citizens of the UAE 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 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 the UAE to stay for 90 days in any 180-day on the territory of each of those Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania), independently of the period calculated for the whole Schengen area.

Territorial application

The agreement contains provisions related to its territorial application: in the case of France and the Netherlands, the visa waiver would entitle nationals of the UAE to stay only in those Member States’ European territories.

Declarations

Other joint declarations are attached to the agreement:

- on the full dissemination of information about the content and consequences of the visa waiver agreement and related issues, such as the entry conditions, and

- on the association of Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis.

3. CONCLUSIONS

In the light of the above-mentioned results, the Commission proposes that the Council

– decide that the agreement be signed on behalf of the Union and authorise the President of the Council to appoint the person(s) duly empowered to sign on behalf of the Union;

– approve the provisional application of the agreement pending its entry into force.