The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Affairs adopted the report by Mariya GABRIEL (EPP, BG) on the draft
Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European
Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the United
Arab Emirates on the short-stay visa waiver.
The committee recommended the European Parliament to
give its consent to the conclusion of the
Agreement.
To recall, the Agreement signed on 6 May 2015 provides
for visa-free travel for the citizens of the European Union
and for the citizens of the United Arab Emirates when travelling to
the territory of the other Contracting Party for a maximum
period of 90 days in any 180-day period. The visa waiver covers
all categories of persons (ordinary, diplomatic, service/official
and special passport holders) travelling for all kinds of purposes,
except for the purpose of carrying out a paid
activity.
The report is accompanied by a short justification
stating that this Agreement on the waiver of short-stay visas
represents a culmination of the deepening of relations
between the European Union and the United Arab Emirates and is an
additional way of stepping up economic and cultural
relations and intensifying political dialogue on various
issues, including human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- In the economic sphere,
the United Arab Emirates are the only one to be classified as a
high-income industrialised country. More than 150 000 European
nationals live in the United Arab Emirates, the vast majority of
whom have seized opportunities to engage in economic activities. As
regards trade relations, the EU is currently the principal trading
partner of the United Arab Emirates, while the UAE is ranked 14th
among the trading partners of the EU and its Member States. Trade
was valued at EUR 51 million in 2014. Trade relations are therefore
highly developed, and can only benefit from the visa waiver
agreement.
- Concerning political relations between the European Union and the United Arab
Emirates, they have been based on the cooperation agreement between
the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council since 1988. The
visa waiver agreement must be viewed in a wider context as a tool
for intensifying cooperation, in which context both parties have a
shared interest in stabilising the macro-region and acting as sound
and reliable partners in various fields such as combating
terrorism, trafficking in persons and climate change.
- With regard to mobility,
the UAE does not present any risk of clandestine immigration or
threat to public policy or security, and it has supplied the
European Institutions with the necessary evidence to this effect.
In addition, the UAE issues biometric passports to its
citizens.
As regards the implementation and monitoring of the
agreement, the rapporteur:
- called on the Commission to observe any developments
in relation to the criteria regarding clandestine
immigration, public policy and security, including, considerations
relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms;
- urged the Commission and the authorities of the United
Arab Emirates to ensure full reciprocity of the visa waiver,
which should permit equal treatment of all citizens, particularly
all citizens of the Union;
- encouraged the Commission to review the composition
of the joint management committees for future agreements to
enable the European Parliament to be involved in the work of these
committees.
Lastly, the rapporteur also queried the practice of
signing visa waiver agreements and applying them provisionally
before the European Parliament has approved them, a practice which
is liable to reduce Parliament’s room for
manoeuvre.