LAST UPDATE | 30 Aug 2022
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN Affairs Simon Coveney has said that Ireland is supportive of the EU’s plan to train more Ukrainian troops “in principle”, but is in “an unusual space” in the debate over whether to ban Russian tourists from the Schengen area.
Coveney is joining his EU counterparts in Prague for an informal two-day meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine.
The ministers are set to discuss the proposal to make it harder for Russians to travel to the bloc by suspending a deal that eases their visa applications which could come into force in October if approved by member states
But some countries including EU powerhouses Germany and France as well as Hungary, Luxembourg and Austria have raised objections.
“There is no place for tourism,” said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, who is hosting an informal two-day meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Prague.
Tightening visa restrictions would “send a signal to the elite in Moscow and Saint Petersburg”, he added.
But France and Germany objected to excessive restrictions in an unofficial diplomatic document obtained by AFP.
They urged checks on Russian visa applicants for potential security risks but advised the EU to let in students, artists or scholars.
“We should not underestimate the transformative power of experiencing life in democratic systems first-hand, especially for future generations,” they said in a joint document.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said it was important to distinguish between those who are to blame for the war and those who are not.
“And we… have to retain our ties to the latter,” she said, singling out Russian artists, students and journalists.
In response, the Kremlin warned it would respond if the European Union makes it harder for Russians to travel to the bloc as part of measures in support of Ukraine.
“We know that there are different views among Europeans on the matter. We will follow this closely. This is a very serious decision that could be directed against our citizens,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Of course, such decisions cannot remain without an answer,” he said.
“Step by step, Brussels and individual European capitals demonstrate an absolute lack of reason… This mix of irrationality, bordering on the insane, allows for such decisions (on visas) to be discussed,” Peskov added.
Also on the agenda in Prague today is a plan to provide an EU training mission to support training of Ukrainian military, and increased European Peace Facility (EPF) spending.
Speaking to reporters at the Prague Congress Center, Coveney said the focus of the meeting will be on “what we can do more to help Ukraine, both militarily and politically, and of course to raise the cost for Russia for continuing this aggression.
“I think a big focus, perhaps, today and tomorrow will be on the potential for a CSDP mission that certainly Ireland is supportive of in principle, and we have to talk about the detail of that,” he said.
He said the ministers will discuss how the training will work and what countries may potentially host the training of Ukrainian troops.
“Of course, a number of European countries are already hosting training facilitation for Ukrainians, but I think it would be good to put that on a more structured basis and to ensure that the EU collectively is doing that in a structured and organised way that can last for some time.”
On the potential plan to restrict Russian visas, Coveney said that Ireland is in “an unusual space” in this area because we’re not part of the Schengen area.
“We already have quite a strict regime in terms of facilitation of visas coming from Russia. We don’t have a visa facilitation system like they have across Schengen so we’re in a slightly different category already,” he said.
“And of course, we have a Common Travel Area with the UK so on issues like this, we need to speak to the UK as well, but certainly we can be part of this discussion.”
Ministers appeared divided on a plan to hold a major training mission for Ukrainian forces as they arrived for the meeting this morning.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, co-hosting the meeting together with the Czech presidency of the bloc, proposed the training operation last week.
Few details were disclosed but Borrell said the Ukrainian soldiers battling a Russian invasion since 24 February should be trained in nearby EU member states.
The informal meeting cannot take a binding decision but Borrell said in Prague he expected the talks to yield “a general, overall political agreement”.
“Today I hope that we will have a political green light,” the former Spanish foreign minister told reporters.
Schengen visas
Russian leisure travellers use Schengen visas normally valid across 26 EU and associated countries, including Switzerland and Norway.
The visas typically allow stays of up to 90 days in a 180-day rolling period.
Those 26 countries received around three million Schengen visa applications last year. Russians made up the biggest group, accounting for 536,000 of them.
Estonia wants EU rules to be changed to allow it to stop Russians with already issued Schengen visas, regardless of which EU country issued them.
The Czech Republic – which holds the rotating EU presidency – argues “business as usual for Russian tourists in time of aggression is inappropriate”.
EU sanctions require unanimity among all 27 member states. One country – Hungary – maintains friendly ties with Moscow and could veto a bloc-wide visa ban.
On top of that, several EU countries, among them France, Germany and Portugal, insist that Russian journalists and other civilians fearing persecution should continue to be allowed entry.
Borrell has said he believes a prohibition on all Russians from entering Europe “is not a good idea”.
The European Commission insists on the need for humanitarian access for dissident Russians, and says visa applications should be assessed individually and not under a blanket rule.
Lithuania has said that, if no EU-wide ban is agreed, it could seek a “regional solution” banning tourists, possibly including Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Poland.
‘Fuel’ for Kremlin propaganda
An expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, Marie Dumoulin, said the appeal to ban Russians from Europe contains “a dangerous error of analysis”.
“Less than 30 percent of Russians have a passport, and their top travel destinations are Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates,” she said.
“A ban would have the exact opposite effect of what is being sought. By stigmatising Russians, it would fuel the Kremlin propaganda that, for years and especially since the offensive in Ukraine, has been decrying a supposed ‘Russophobia’ by Westerners.”
The EU, she said, should retain links with Russian civil society and not “lock it away in a pen totally controlled by the regime”.
Additional reporting by © AFP 2022
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