on the signing, on behalf of the Union, and provisional application of the Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Colombia on the short-stay visa waiver

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 lists the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of a visa when crossing the external borders of the Member States and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement. Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 is applied by all Member States, with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council amended Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 by transferring 19 countries to Annex II, which lists the third countries whose nationals are exempt from the visa requirement. Those 19 countries are: Colombia, Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu. The reference to each of those countries in Annex II is accompanied by a footnote which specifies that "the exemption from the visa requirement shall apply from the date of entry into force of an agreement on visa exemption to be concluded with the European Union".

Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 was adopted on 20 May 2014 and entered into force on 9 June 2014. The first series of visa waiver agreements were signed on 6 May 2015 (United Arab Emirates), 26 May 2015 (Timor-Leste) and 28 May 2015 (Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu) and provisionally apply from the date of signature pending their entry into force.

Colombia and Peru were, according to Recital 5 of Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 and the joint declaration issued at the time of adoption, subject to a specific procedure which required a further assessment of those countries against the relevant criteria, before the Commission could present to the Council recommendations for decisions authorising the opening of negotiations on visa waiver agreements with those two countries. In October 2014, the Commission adopted a report broadly assessing the situation of Colombia against the criteria listed in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 539/2001, as amended by Regulation (EU) No 509/2014; a report about Peru was adopted in parallel. The report examined data and developments in migration and mobility (Schengen visas, legal migration, irregular migration, travel document security and fraud), crime and security, economy, trade and tourism, external relations and human rights issues, regional coherence and reciprocity. It also assessed the risk scenarios possibly resulting from visa liberalisation. The Commission concluded that the significant improvement of the Colombian economic, social and security situation in recent years provided justification that Colombians should be granted visa-free access to the Member States' territory, while the risks related to visa liberalisation were considered to be manageable, inter alia by reinforced cooperation on return and correctly implemented border controls. In addition, the visa waiver agreement contains the necessary safeguards to suspend or terminate the agreement should this be required to avoid security or migration risks for the Union.

In March 2015, the Commission presented a Recommendation to the Council to authorise it to start negotiations on visa waiver agreements with Colombia and Peru. On 19 May 2015, the Council addressed negotiating directives to the Commission. The negotiations with Colombia were held on 20 May 2015 in Brussels. During that meeting the entire draft text could be reviewed, a few modifications were suggested and agreement was reached on all aspects.

The agreement was initialled by the chief negotiators on 9 June 2015; an official ceremony was held in the margins of the EU-CELAC Summit on 10 June 2015. The text of the agreement had been circulated to Member States on 27 May 2015 and further information was provided during a meeting of the Visa Working Party of the Council on 15 June 2015.

2.LEGAL BASIS

On the part of the Union, the legal basis for the agreement is point (a) of Article 77(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in conjunction with Article 218 thereof.

The attached proposal constitutes the legal instrument for the signature of the agreement. The Council will decide by qualified majority.

Taking into account the fact that Colombia will be able to complete its internal ratification procedure quickly, the proposed decision on the signature sets out the provisional application of the agreement as from the day following the date of its signature in accordance with Article 218(5) TFEU. Considering the need for the European Parliament’s consent before the agreement is concluded, the Commission will inform the European Parliament of the provisional application of the agreement.

3.OUTCOME OF THE NEGOTIATIONS

The Commission considers that the objectives set by the Council in its negotiating directives were attained and that the draft visa waiver agreement is acceptable to the Union.

The final content of it can be summarised as follows:

Purpose

The agreement provides for visa-free travel for the citizens of the European Union and for the citizens of Colombia when travelling to the territory of the other Contracting Party for a maximum period of 90 days in any 180-day period.

In order to safeguard equal treatment of all EU citizens, a provision has been included in the agreement stating that Colombia may suspend or terminate the agreement only in respect of all the Member States of the European Union and that the Union may also only suspend or terminate the agreement in respect of all of its Member States.

The specific situation of the United Kingdom and Ireland is reflected in the preamble.