Lawmakers Call for End to Visa-Free Travel for Americans -<br />By JAMES KANTERMARCH 3, 2017<br />BRUSSELS — The European Parliament has passed a nonbinding resolution calling for the reintroduction of visa requirements for American citizens, raising<br />the stakes in a long-running battle over the United States’ refusal to grant visa-free access to citizens of five European Union countries.<br />“At the moment, the U. S. just believes the commission is not going to act but stick with the pragmatic argument<br />that doing so would create damage that’s just too great.”<br />He continued, referring to Washington, “There’s no denying heightened concern about the current administration,<br />but that’s more about uncertainty about who’s in charge and how the State Department is working.”<br />Mr. Moraes said the civil liberties committee could still recommend within two months<br />that a case against the commission’s failure to act be brought to the bloc’s highest tribunal, the Court of Justice of the European Union.<br />In 2014, the European Commission was notified that the United States<br />and four other countries — Australia, Brunei, Canada and Japan — were failing to provide reciprocal, visa-free travel to citizens of some European Union countries.<br />In the vote on Thursday, the Parliament gave the European Commission two months to take legal measures to impose visas<br />for American travelers to the European Union unless the Americans offered reciprocity to all citizens from the bloc.
