The european union is considering and heavily pushing the idea of requiring US residents to hold not only a passport but also a travel visa to visit any European Countries. This is bad for the US because that means US citizens would now have to fill out paper work to apply for approval for vacation or travel to European countries.
This would include visits to landmarks such as the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower in France, the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy, Vatican City, and the Nurnberg Christmas market in Germany, along with a vast number of other popular travel destinations across Europe.
This will also affect any potential travel required for businesses with the visa paperwork adding an additional delay to travel. In addition to delays and inconvenience, the visas could even be denied outright.
Why Now?
Many people are wondering why now? Why is it that the Union suddenly may require visas for US citizens to travel? The answer is that they want to offer equal treatment for all members. While the US has allowed citizens from countries it enjoys visiting to travel here freely for some time, countries that don’t have similar leverage, such as Romania and Croatia, have not been allowed to travel freely to visit the US. So members of the committee are now trying to pressure the US to treat all European Union countries equally.
Will this get enacted?
This is very unlikely to get enacted. This is a non-binding resolution, more intended as a scare tactic to drive a change to the US policy. The impact to the tourism industries in these countries would most likely be severe, leading to an outcry from affected businesses. The current timeline for implementation is supposedly within two months but that seems highly unlikely, given that some further binding resolution would have to be passed before the ban could be implemented.
As seen in the US recently, rolling out a travel ban with little preparation or warning can be a complete disaster, potentially backfiring on those implementing the change. The US Department of Homeland Security has made public statements to the effect that the effort to get those five countries included in the same requirements for the rest of the EU would be hurt if the European Union follows through with its plan.
America is not the only country to impose visa restrictions on travel from some countries in the EU; Canada does as well. However, Canada has plans to lift the visa requirement in December, which is why the European Union is not considering implementing visa restrictions for Canadians.
