EU studies visa sanctions on US envoys

The European Commission is considering asking EU countries to impose visa requirements on US diplomats in retaliation for a US delay in extending a visa waiver scheme to all EU states, officials said yesterday.

The European Union's executive body had warned it could back such a sanction if Washington did not extend the scheme to Greece and the nine states that joined the 25-member bloc in 2004, most of them from the former Soviet bloc.

The US has repeatedly said it can waive visas only when a country fulfils clear requirements, such as a low rate of citizens who overstay the duration of their visas.

An internal report by the Commission's justice department said there had been insufficient progress on the issue and that US diplomats should be made to apply for visas before entering the bloc, officials familiar with the report said.

A final decision on the recommendation - which, if put into practice by member states, would throw a spanner in the works of transatlantic diplomacy - must be taken by the 25 Commissioners at the head of the Brussels-based executive body.

The Commission is due to present its report to EU justice and interior ministers in Finland from September 20-22.

"It will ask for imposing visas on diplomats - at least that is what its departments ask it to do," said one EU official, asking not to be named.

Another EU official said the US requirements were not clear enough and that was why the Commission's justice department had called for sanctions.

The new EU states are frustrated by the US position. One Czech diplomat warned in July his country could break with EU rules and reintroduce visas unilaterally.

An EU diplomat said he doubted all the bloc's states would back any recommendation to impose visa requirements on US diplomats.

"The EU line has officially been one for all and all for one, but in reality this has not been enforced," he said. "It will be very difficult to find a common hard line."

Meanwhile the European Commission is considering creating a new top post to handle the sensitive issue of immigration, sources at the European Union's executive arm said yesterday.

The post of immigration commissioner could appear in a Commission reshuffle due to take place when Bulgaria and Romania join the bloc, probably next January, they said.

The admission of the two Balkan countries will force Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to add two commissioners to the existing 25 - one per member state.

"One idea being considered is appointing an immigration commissioner, or an immigration and integration commissioner," an EU official said, asking not to be named.

"It is still too early to say what Barroso will do. The European Parliament will have to be consulted first," another official said.

If the post is created, the new commissioner would take over part of the portfolio of Commission vice-president Franco Frattini, in charge of justice, security and liberty, and maybe part of Social Affairs Commission Vladimir Spidla's beat.

Mr Frattini is also in charge of combating terrorism and cross-border crime, as well as judicial cooperation and human rights within the EU.

One source said neither a Bulgarian nor a Romanian was likely to have enough EU experience to be given such a sensitive portfolio, which would likely go to a commissioner from one of the larger member states.

That would mean a bigger reshuffle, the source said.

Growing demand for joint EU action on immigration has been spurred by pleas from Spain, Malta and Italy this year for help to stop rising flows of illegal African migrants.

Last year's riots in France by young people of immigrant origin also highlighted the problems of integrating migrants.

Bulgaria and Romania may only join in 2008 if the Commission declares them not yet ready for membership when it makes a recommendation on September 26.