Thursday

28th Mar 2024

German foreign minister admits failure in visa scandal

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has admitted that he should have acted more quickly to stop a loophole in Germany's visa rules, which allowed tens of thousands of eastern Europeans to flood into Germany between 2000 and 2003.

The affair started when German visa rules were liberalised to make it easier for citizens of new democratic states in eastern Europe to enter the European Union.

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  • No majority to push Fischer to resign (Photo: Irish EU Presidency)

Presentation of a specialised insurance document was in some cases enough to obtain visa and enter the country.

The embassy in the Ukraine capital, Kiev, was particularly busy and managed to issue 297,000 visas in 2001 alone, according to Deutsche Welle.

The opposition in Germany has claimed the lax visa rules allowed an influx of prostitutes, drug dealers and gangsters from eastern Europe.

During the day-long televised testimony on Monday (25 April) Mr Fischer admitted failure but accused his political opponents of exaggerating the scale of the problem.

Mr Fischer's Green Party is a junior partner in the German government lead by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats (SPD).

The opposition referred once during the parliamentary inquiry to the possibility of the popular Green minister resigning.

"To achieve that, a simple bill in the Bundestag will do," Mr Fischer replied, knowing that such a proposal would not be backed by a majority, according to Spiegel Online.

German visa scandal moves to EU level

A scandal over lax German visa rules, which has dogged foreign minister Joschka Fischer for months, has now moved up to EU level.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Difficult talks ahead on financing new EU defence spending

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of ending any time soon, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22 March) to discuss how to boost the defence capabilities of Ukraine and of the bloc itself.

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Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

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