Bush announces push for more visa-free entry to US
By Honor Mahony
US president George W. Bush has indicated he will push to ease travel restrictions for citizens of the EU's central and eastern member states.
"I am pleased to announce that I'm going to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our visa waiver programme," said Mr Bush during a visit to Estonia on Tuesday (28 November).
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"It's a way to make sure that nations like Estonia qualify more quickly for the programme and, at the same time, strengthen the programme's security components," he added.
The issue has long been a bone of contention for the ex-communist states of the EU, who have been loyal supporters of Washington's war on terror and want their citizens to be treated as those in most of the rest of the EU.
At the moment, citizens from 14 western European 'old' member states as well as new member state Slovenia are entitled to travel to the US for up to 90 days for business or tourism.
Citizens from the rest of the member states, predominantly from central and eastern Europe as well as Greece, Cyprus and Malta, have to go through the lengthy process of applying for a US visa.
The issue is generally raised at all bilateral meetings with Washington with Estonia continuing the tradition yesterday.
"We talked about the fact that Estonians want to be able to travel to America visa-free. Both the President and the prime minister made this an important part of our discussions.
"They made it clear to me that if we're an ally in NATO, people ought to be able to come to our country in a much easier fashion," said Mr Bush.
The US president went on to indicate that any ease on travel restrictions would be dependent on extra security arrangements.
"We need to know who is coming, and when they're leaving. And the more...we can share information, the easier it will be for me to get Congress to make it easier for Estonians to travel to the United States.
Information for travel
US Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff spelt out the idea in a statement on Tuesday.
"We envision a secure travel authorization system that will allow us to receive data about travellers from countries before they get on the plane."
"Countries that are willing to assist the United States in doing effective checks on travellers could be put on track to enter the programme soon," he said, with the US' main argument until now against extending the scheme, that new member states do not meet the security requirements.
Any easing of visa restrictions for the new member states would end a diplomatic headache for the European Commission, which has been pressed by them to put reciprocal measures in place.
While EU officials have long said that visa waiver deals must be fully reciprocal, it has baulked at actually putting diplomatic sanctions against the US in place, such as implementing its own visa requirements.