The European Parliament last week adopted six reports that I drafted, giving the go-ahead to visa-free travel to six new countries, namely Mauritius, Seychelles, Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda.
The agreements give Maltese and other EU citizens the right to travel without a visa to these six countries, some of which are increasingly becoming tourist destinations for Maltese travelling to the Pacific and the Caribbean.
The visa waiver is valid for EU citizens travelling to these countries, and vice versa, for a three-month period within a period of six months. The exemption covers all categories of persons, notably for tourism travel. However, it excludes persons travelling for work purposes.
These are the first reports of a Maltese MEP to be adopted by the European Parliament in this new mandate and they relate to an area - visa-free travel - I have been closely following for a long time now.
As I stated in Parliament last week during a debate on these reports with Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, the agreements will broaden the rights of an EU citizen because they will make it easier for EU citizens to travel to these countries free from costly visa restrictions.
Before giving my go-ahead for these agreements I insisted on a guarantee that there would be full reciprocity between the six countries and the EU. This means that the EU would only waive its visa requirement with these countries if they did the same with us.
I stressed this point because, so far, reciprocity has not been the rule across the board and there have been - and indeed remain - some instances where reciprocity is not fully respected.
This is the case, for instance, with Brazil, which still imposes visa requirements on some four EU countries (including Malta) despite the fact that we do not impose such requirements in return. Brazil cites technical hitches and the need for new legislation for its delay. But, recently, the European Commission embarked on new efforts to get Brazil in line. Our Foreign Affairs Minister has been among those who have been piling pressure for this to happen. It is hoped that this issue will be solved soon.
Canada was also lately in the dock for having reintroduced a visa requirement on Czech citizens whereas the United States also still fails to respect full reciprocity.
The US lifted visa requirements for Maltese and citizens of some other EU member states a year ago. But it still does not provide reciprocity for a number of EU countries, such as Greece and Poland. We would like to help these countries achieve equal treatment like the rest of us.
There are other issues that have since come up with the United States.
The first is the so-called Esta (Electronic System of Travel Authorisation), which is a system that requires travellers to inform the US authorities about their plans to travel to the US and seek travel authorisation before they travel. This system entered fully into operation this year and, despite initial fears, the European Commission has now found that Esta does not amount to a new visa requirement "in disguise".
The second is a more recent development that is taking shape right now as the US Congress is passing new legislation that would impose a new $10 travelling fee on visitors to the US, including those who do not require a visa. This new fee is being bizarrely presented as a tax that would support tourism.
At the European Parliament we have serious reservations on this new charge and feel that, far from promoting tourism to the US, it actually presents a new restriction. We are therefore asking the Commission to investigate the matter in order to establish whether this fee represents a new travel restriction that breaches the principle of reciprocity.
Visa issues are part and parcel of citizens' freedom of movement. My intention is to continue following developments in this area very closely in order to ensure that EU citizens, including Maltese citizens, benefit from wider travelling opportunities free from restrictions in more and more countries.
Here is another area where we can achieve more and quicker results by working through the EU rather than working on our own. I am committed to do my part to open up new horizons for travelling.
Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.
www.simonbusuttil.eu