According to a statement from the EU Council, ambassadors of member states of the European Union (Coreper) have decided on their stance on a draft regulation that modifies a system that permits the EU to revoke visa-free travel for third nations whose citizens are exempt from the requirement for a visa when visiting the Schengen area. “This new law, when adopted, will boost the EU’s toolbox to counter situations when visa-free travel is being abused or works against the interests of the EU,” the statement said. The updated mechanism provides for new grounds to suspend the visa-free regime. These include lack of alignment of a visa-free third country with the EU’s visa policy, in cases where this may lead to increased arrivals to the EU e.g. because of this country’s geographical proximity to the EU. Another is the operation of an investor citizenship scheme, whereby citizenship is granted without any genuine link to the third country concerned, in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments. A third is hybrid threats and deficiencies in document security legislation or procedures. Member states have decided to also include the possibility to suspend the visa-free regime in case of a significant and abrupt deterioration in the EU’s external relations with a third country, in particular when it relates to human rights and fundamental freedoms, the statement said. Existing grounds remain in place: a substantial increase in the number of third-country nationals who are refused entry or found overstaying; a substantial increase in the number of unfounded asylum applications from the nationals of a third country for which the recognition rate is low; a decrease in cooperation with the EU on readmission of people that have been asked to leave the EU territory and a risk or imminent threat to public policy or internal security (e.g. because of an increase in criminal offences). Another ground which already forms part of the current mechanism i.e. the failure to meet the visa liberalisation benchmarks by partners that have been through a visa liberalisation dialogue to become visa free is now spelled out more clearly in the new regulation, the statement said. The Council negotiating mandate also details the thresholds to trigger the mechanism. These thresholds quantify increases in: cases of refused entry and overstay; unfounded asylum applications; and serious criminal offences. Member states have set this number at 30 per cent (contrary to 50 per cent in the Commission proposal). On the other hand, the threshold to assess if an asylum recognition rate should be considered as low has been fixed at 20 per cent (instead of the proposed 4 per cent). The duration of temporary suspension of the visa exemption has been increased from nine to 12 months and can be extended by a further 24 months (instead of 18 months under the current system). During this suspension phase, the European Commission will engage in a dialogue with the third country in order to take steps to remedy the circumstances that led to the suspension. If no solution is found to remedy the situation, the EU can decide to permanently revoke the visa-free travel regime. The reference period for identifying the existence of circumstances which may lead to a suspension has been amended to cover at least two months. This will make it possible to take longer reference periods (e.g. annual trends) into consideration, not just sudden changes in the relevant circumstances. The March 13 agreement on a common position will allow the Council of the EU to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament, once it has settled on its own position, in order to agree on a final legal text.