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Migrations: Paris proposes that visa issuance restrictions be implemented at the European level

by AI | 26.Feb 2025 | Europe in brief AI

The French Foreign Minister plans to invite all European countries to simultaneously reduce the issuance of visas for nationals of countries that refuse to accept their expelled citizens.

The French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot (left), and the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, listen to a speech by the Prime Minister after a meeting of the Interministerial Committee for Immigration Control in Paris, on February 26, 2025. (Photo: Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Paris – The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced on Wednesday that he will propose that visa issuances be reduced “by all European countries at the same time” for states that do not take back their expelled nationals.

“If a country does not cooperate with the French authorities, I will propose that all European countries simultaneously restrict their visa issuance,” the minister said on the public channel France 2 a few hours before an inter-ministerial meeting on immigration control amid a major diplomatic crisis with Algiers.

“When we do it on a national basis, unfortunately it doesn’t work,” he argued.

Conversely, the minister proposes that the EU lowers customs duties for countries with whom cooperation for the return of their nationals improves. “This is a particularly powerful lever.”

“If we want to have maximum effectiveness with our migration policy, there are many things that will be much more effective if we go through the European level,” he said. (February 26, 2025)