Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) has shown openness to a debate on lifting a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. “There are many ways we can get started,” Schallenberg said Tuesday before an informal meeting with his EU colleagues in Prague. For example, the denunciation of the visa agreement between the EU countries could be discussed. Schallenberg rejects a complete EU visa ban for Russians.
“We must be careful not to completely cut the lines of contact with civil society, more than 140 million people are making a general judgment,” the foreign minister warned. “It is also important to me that those troops who are not behind Putin (Russian President Vladimir) also support them.” The number of visa applications from Russia is “manageable,” Schallenberg said. “Numbers have plummeted” and have never recovered from the coronavirus pandemic since 2019.
Schallenberg believes in compromise
According to Reuters news agency, an EU diplomat said on Monday that foreign ministers could agree in principle to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. It would also mean that Russians would have to go through a longer process and pay 80 euros instead of 35 euros for EU visas.
On Tuesday, Schallenberg was confident that EU foreign ministers would find a compromise. Countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States or Scandinavian countries such as Finland and Denmark are demanding visa suspension for Russian citizens or have already partially restricted entry.
Discussion behind closed doors
Schallenberg was “unhappy” about the course of the debate. Such discussions should be held behind closed doors between the 27 EU countries “before we go out with them”, the foreign minister stressed. “You should always realize that we are being watched, not only by Moscow, not only by Beijing, but also by the whole world.”
Asked about the critical remarks of ÖVP politicians about the EU sanctions against Russia, Schallenberg said: “The sanctions were not called into question when it was said that they should be regularly reviewed with regard to the fact that they work in Russia and not as a boomerang. fall back on us, then that’s perfectly legitimate.”
Sanctions “a painful process”
The sanctions are “a painful process,” the foreign minister said. “Do we want that? No, definitely not. Would we want it any other way? Absolutely.” But it’s a misconception to think that if you remove them, inflation will fall or energy prices will go back to where they were last year – the gas price index quadrupled last year, gasoline is up 50 percent and inflation is already in early February – so before the war – that was six percent, explains Schallenberg. “Of course war is an accelerant,” Schallenberg said, “but lifting the sanctions would not be the solution.”
Source: Krone
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