EU reaches deal on new rules for suspending visa-free travel for third countries

The European Parliament and the European Council have reached a provisional agreement, allowing the EU to suspend short-stay visa-free travel into the EU for citizens of third countries who are exempt from applying for a visa when travelling to the Schengen area – 61 in total. Through to the amendment, the EU will now be able to react more swiftly than before when visa-free travel is being abused.

Before the amendment to the EU law, multiple reasons for suspension already applied since 2013. Situations such as an increase in the number of asylum applications from nationals of a country for which the asylum recognition rate is low or an increase in the number of third-country nationals who are refused entry or found to be overstaying were reasons for the EU to suspend short-stay visa-free travel.

However, the new legislation clarifies those already existing grounds, among other things by implementing thresholds. A threshold of 30% quantifies substantial increases of cases of refused entry and overstay, asylum applications, and serious criminal offences. To assess whether or not an asylum recognition rate should be considered low, the threshold has now been fixed at 20%.

.@EUCouncil and @europarl_EN settled on an update of the mechanism that allows the EU to suspend visa-free travel for those exempt from applying for a visa when travelling to #Schengen area.

This ammended law will help 🇪🇺better react to abuse of visa-free travel. pic.twitter.com/CdaHPU5hZO

— Polish presidency of the Council of the EU (@POLAND25EU) June 17, 2025

The new agreement will allow the EU suspend visa-freedom when a country violates the United Nations Charter, breaches the international human rights or humanitarian law, and doesn’t comply with international court decisions. These are considered to be important principles of the initial visa waiver agreement and thus determining for its continuation.

“With the new law, additional grounds for suspending the visa waiver will include hybrid threats, such as state-sponsored instrumentalisation of migrants aimed at destabilising or undermining society; and investor citizenship schemes (“golden passports”), which raise security concerns. A country’s lack of alignment with EU visa policy, potentially making it a transit country for illegal entry into the EUsc, will also be a valid ground for suspending visa-free regimes. Existing grounds, including a lack of cooperation on readmissions, will be maintained,” the European Parliament writes in a statement.

Moreover, both the European Council and the European Parliament voted to increase the duration of temporary suspension of the visa exemption from the current nine months to 12 months. It will be possible to extend that period by an extra 24 months, whereas before the extension went up to 18 months.

Governments targeted

The goal of the suspension phase is to allow the European Commission to dialogue with the third country and to find a solution and remediation for the circumstances that led to the suspension. If this is not the case, the EU can decide to permanently revoke the visa-free travel regime. The law would also allow the EU to target government officials who might be responsible for those problematic circumstances.

“Reformed visa rules will give the EU a revamped tool to respond to geopolitical situations and new threats. Visa policy can contribute to upholding EU values by ensuring that there are consequences when a foreign government breaches human rights and international law. In such cases, their government representatives and diplomats should have their visa-free access to the EU revoked, and this agreement makes that more likely”, rapporteur Matjaž Nemec (member of the Slovenian political party S&D) said.

The provisional agreement now needs to be formally adopted by both Parliament and Council to enter into law.