No progress on visa-free travel to the US

There has been no progress towards visa-free travel to the US as the American authorities still do not consider Malta as having adhered to the necessary obligations required to be able to join the US Visa Waiver Programme.

This was declared in a report by the European Commission, which is trying to resolve the matter as it affects all the new member states bar Slovenia.

Normally the EU adopts the principle of reciprocity when it comes to visa requirements. Non-EU countries whose citizens are allowed to enter EU territory without a visa have to adopt the same regime for all EU citizens. However, this is still not the case when it comes to the US.

According to the Commission's report, the US stresses that "the requirements for a country's acceptance into the United States Visa Waiver Programme (VWP) have been established by Congress as a matter of law and countries desiring to participate in the Visa Waiver Programme must individually satisfy all of these requirements".

According to the US, the EU member states that are not yet part of the programme, such as Malta, do not fulfil all of those criteria so it is not possible to include them in the VWP in the short term.

To qualify for the VWP, a country must offer reciprocal privileges to US citizens, have had a non-immigrant refusal rate of less than three per cent for the previous year, certify that it issues machine-readable passports, have a programme to incorporate biometric identifiers into the passports and certify that it reports the theft of blank passports on a timely basis to the US authorities.

The US does not consider membership of the European Union as, in itself, sufficient ground for VWP eligibility.

The issue has long been discussed between EU and US officials. It was raised last week during a meeting of EU justice ministers. Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini, responsible for this area, said no tangible progress had been made in the latest talks with the US.

The Commission will be presenting a second report in July in order to take stock of the situation then and decide whether to take any measures towards resolving the issue.

The issue was discussed last year during a meeting between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and US President Bush in Washington.

Meanwhile, in its report the Commission stated that other third countries have agreed to remove the need for a visa for citizens from the new member states travelling to their country.

In the case of Malta, the visa requirement was dropped by Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Salvador and Venezuela.

Talks are still ongoing with Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei and Panama.