EU Member States and Russia are bound by OSCE commitments to "gradually simplify and to administer flexibly the procedures for exit and entry", and to "consider possibilities for the reciprocal abolition of entry visas on the basis of agreements between them". They recognize that "freer movement and contacts among their citizens are important in the context of the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms".
On this basis, the EU and Russia are pursuing a common goal of visa-free short-term travel of their citizens. They agreed to "examine the conditions for visa-free travel as a long-term perspective" at the EU-Russia Summit in May 2003 and to "continue and intensify the visa dialogue at expert and political level" in the Road Map for the Common Space of Freedom, Security and Justice adopted in May 2005.
Liberalization of visa regime between the Russian Federation and the European Union acquires particular significance taking into account continuously expanding people-to-people and business contacts.
Conclusion in 2006 of the Russia-EU Agreement on the facilitation of the issuance of visas marked the beginning of this process. The Agreement envisages a simplified visa issuance regime (on the basis of written request from the host party) for a number of categories of persons, i.e. businessmen; members of official delegations; drivers conducting international cargo and passenger transportation services; members of train, refrigerator and locomotive crews; persons participating in scientific, cultural and artistic activities; participants in international sports events and persons accompanying them in a professional capacity; pupils, students, post-graduate students and accompanying teachers; close relatives (spouses, children, parents, grandparents and grandchildren) of persons legally residing in the territory of Russia or a EU Member State; journalists; participants in official exchange programmes organized by twinned cities; persons visiting military and civil burial grounds.
Certain categories of persons (members of official delegations; businessmen; drivers; members of train crews; persons participating in scientific, cultural and artistic activities; participants in international sports events; journalists; participants in official exchange programmes organized by twinned cities) are entitled to get a one-year multiple-entry visa, provided that during the previous year they obtained at least one single-entry visa and made use of it, or a multiple-entry visa with the term of validity from 2 to 5 years, provided that during the previous two years they made use of one-year multiple-entry visa. Furthermore, members of national and regional Governments and Parliaments, Constitutional Courts and Supreme Courts, spouses and children who are under the age of 21 (or are dependants) of Russian or EU citizens shall be issued multiple-entry visa with the term of validity of up to five years even if they apply for a visa for the first time.
Holders of diplomatic passports can enter, leave and transit through Russia and EU without visas.
The maximum time limit to take a decision on the requests from all Russian and EU citizens for a visa is 10 calendar days and visa fee is 35 euro (a fee of 70 euro will be charged for processing visa in an urgent manner). Close relatives; members of official delegations, national and regional Governments and Parliaments, Constitutional and Supreme Courts; pupils, students, post-graduate students and accompanying teachers; disabled persons and those accompanying them, if necessary; persons who have proved the necessity of their travel on humanitarian grounds; participants in youth international sports events and persons accompanying them; persons participating in scientific, cultural and artistic activities, as well as participants in official exchange programmes organized by twinned cities are waived from visa fees.
Privileges specified in the Agreement refer only to short-stay trips, i.e. no more than 90 days per period of 180 days.
Control over the implementation of the Agreement is carried out within the Joint Committee that has been set up for this purpose. It has adopted Guidelines for the implementation of the Agreement in order to assure harmonized application of the provisions of the document by the Parties.
On the whole the Agreement is successfully implemented, with arising problems discussed at meetings of the Joint Committee. For instance, some consular posts of EU Member States require an excessively long list of documents from Russian citizens applying for a visa; oblige them to obtain visas through the so-called outsourcing visa centres without providing them with an alternative to apply directly with a consular post; very rarely issue multiple-entry visas with the term of validity of five years and sometimes require prior use of two Schengen one-year visas instead of one as specified in the Agreement, and, in most cases, visas issued by a particular (namely their own) state.
In April 2011 Russia and the EU launched negotiations on amending the Agreement for the purpose of further facilitation of cross-border travel regime for their citizens. The modernisation of the Agreement will allow, in particular, to extend categories of persons entitled to multiple-entry visas with the term of validity of up to five years and broaden the list of persons waived from visa fees.
The transition to a mutual visa-free regime for short-term travel is the main and ultimate task of cooperation between Russia and EU in this field. The
Russia-EU visa-free dialogue was launched in 2007 precisely for this purpose. It was carried out within four thematic blocs: document security, including biometrics; illegal migration, including readmission; public order and security; external relations.
The exploratory phase of visa-free dialogue was concluded in March 2010. Expert consultations allowed to discuss in a constructive way Russian and EU legislative and administrative practices in areas covered by the thematic blocs.
In 2010 Russia produced a draft agreement on waiver of visa requirements for Russian and EU citizens.
In 2010 Russia and the EU proceeded to an operational phase of the visa-free dialogue. The Parties launched elaboration of a list of Common Steps leading to a visa-free regime between Russia and the European Union. The implementation of the Common Steps will open the way to immediately start elaboration and conclusion of an Agreement on Waiver of Visa Requirements for the Citizens of the Russian Federation and the European Union.
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