A group of European countries has called on Brussels to make it harder for Russians to vacation within the Schengen area as the war in Ukraine grinds through its fifth year.
EU interior ministers were discussing the issue on Thursday at a meeting in Luxembourg. That talk was prompted by a letter signed earlier this week by Poland, Norway, the Baltic states and nine other members of the free-movement Schengen area.
“It has been deeply troubling to witness increasing numbers of Russian tourists enjoying leisure travel on European beaches and in European resorts while missiles and drones continue to strike civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” the letter, seen by AFP, said.
The signatories called for “new restrictive and binding visa measures,” arguing that easy access to Europe poses security risks. The letter also stressed that better procedures are needed to identify Russians who fought in Ukraine and prevent them from entering Europe.
The EU has already suspended its visa facilitation agreement with Russia and moved to deny Russians multi-entry visas last November. The number of visas issued to Russians dropped from more than four million before the war to about half a million in 2024.
