Schengen area

Main article: European Union

Schengen countries for May 2023

Chronicle

2024: Abolition of air and sea border control of the Schengen area with Bulgaria and Romania

In December 2023, the EU Council announced its decision to abolish air and sea border control of the Schengen area with Bulgaria and Romania.

"From March 31, 2024, there will be no more checks of people on the internal air and sea borders of the EU between Bulgaria and Romania and other countries of the Schengen zone. This date corresponds to a change in the winter/summer schedule set by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). "

2023: Polish deputy foreign minister arrested for corruption in Schengen visas

In early September 2023, it became known about the dismissal of Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Petr Wawrzyk, but in fact it turned out that the official was arrested for visa corruption.

Officially, the reason was the "lack of satisfactory cooperation." However, information spread in the press that it was Vavzhik who oversaw the bill to increase the issuance of work visas to migrants, mainly from Asian countries, which PiS had to quickly recall so that the party would not be washed away by a wave of anger of Polish citizens.

According to the investigation, Vavzhik oversaw the consular departments and seemed to put pressure on them, demanding an increase in the number of visas issued under the pretext of a shortage of labor. Including fraud was carried out through the visa center in Lodz, which was inaugurated in April this year.

The essence of the scam was to issue many work visas for people who had not worked a day in Poland. Such actions should be suppressed, but, as you can guess, no one was involved in tracking such stories.

After the disclosure of this information, there was evidence that the ex-official allegedly tried to commit suicide, and then an article was massively circulated in the left-wing media stating that Poland issues the most work visas in the entire European Union.

As if by chance, the city of Lodz was also mentioned there. In it, the border service recently conducted an audit of a large employment agency led by a 40-year-old Georgian. In the course of it, it turned out that since mid-2022, a man registered 1647 applications for assignments to foreigners with the employment bureau, only none of them eventually got a job.

At the same time, details of the scandal began to appear, which the competitors of the ruling party began to use with might and main. Journalists of the opposition portal Onet said that the Americans gave a tip to Wawjik, since he created a channel for the illegal transfer of migrants from Asia and Africa through Europe to the United States.

When issuing Polish labor visas, the foreign ministry used the resource of the outsourcing structure, which VFS Global belongs to the American fund. Blackstone VFS Global has several contracts with Polish diplomatic missions to maintain the visa system.

The prosecutor later announced that seven people were charged on suspicion of involvement in corruption related to the issuance of Polish visas, three of them were placed in custody. Moreover, it is argued that among them there are no persons who "held senior positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." According to the prosecutor, the violations, which were found by about a hundred, were identified in Polish consular missions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UAE, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the Philippines and Qatar, but not in any African countries, contrary to media reports.

At the same time, the opposition announced that we are talking about 250 thousand visas that were issued for two and a half years. Up to 40 thousand dollars were taken for one visa, which were shared by smugglers and officials. Even the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry (and a member of the PiS party) Zbigniew Rau was involved in the scandal, under the pretext that without his patronage such schemes could not be carried out. Remembering similar scandals with Ukrainian grain, in which persons close to the ruling party were also involved, the Rybar channel noted the assumption logically.

But Rau pointed out that "there is no scandal," and the violations concerned the issuance of about 200 documents. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Pavel Yablonsky, the case concerns 46 work visas issued in 2022, and only about 1000 suspicious cases are checked.

MEP, former Prime Minister Poland Leszek Miller said behind-the-scenes talks had begun to suspend visas issued by Polish consular departments. According to him, " Schengen zone loses confidence in Poland" and the visas issued by it. He pointed out that the worst-case scenario provides for an option in which Poles in Europe will again need documents to cross borders.

The main catch in the rhetoric of the ruling party is due to the fact that it has already spent billions of zloty on the construction of fences on its borders, while in order to get into the EU, you just had to pay not to courier Ukrainians, but directly to Polish officials.

2022

Croatia's inclusion in the Schengen area

On December 8, 2022, EU countries agreed to include Croatia in the Schengen zone from January 1, 2023.

Austria opposes Bulgaria and Romania joining Schengen

As it became known on December 6, 2022, Austria opposed the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen.

2021: Russians - No. 1 in the world in terms of the number of applications for Schengen visas

In 2021, Russians filed 536.2 thousand applications for Schengen visas, which is 7.5 times less than two years earlier. At the same time, the Russian Federation remained the leader in the number of applications for visiting Europe among third countries. Such data are contained in the statistics of the Schengen Agreement, published in June 2022.

According to Interfax, the share of multiple visas issued to Russian citizens has increased - 86% of the total number or 451.7 thousand documents. In 2020, this share was 73%, in 2019 - 79%.

Russians - No. 1 in the world in terms of the number of applications for Schengen visas

The share of refusals to issue visas has also increased - in 2021 it amounted to 3%. For comparison: in 2020 - 2.6%, in 2019 - 1.5%. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) believes that in 2022 the situation with the execution of documents for entry into the Schengen zone is unlikely to improve.

In the absence of direct flights to Europe, blocking Russian bank cards and other external restrictions, our compatriots do not have many opportunities to go to Europe. And if so, then there will be fewer applications for visas, - said ATOR.

A twofold increase in the share of refusals compared to 2019 in the association was associated with covid (coronavirus COVID-19) restrictions and closed borders: many European countries did not allow Russians for tourist purposes (there are such in 2022, an example of this is Germany).

After Russia, Turkey (271.9 thousand applications), Ukraine (194.2 thousand), Saudi Arabia (173.5 thousand) and Morocco (157.1 thousand) were placed in the top five in terms of the number of applications submitted in 2021. In 2021, the share of travelers from Russia who submitted documents for Schengen amounted to 18.3% (the highest figure in the world).

According to statistics, the total number of applications for Schengen visas from third countries in 2021 decreased by almost 83% compared to 2019 - 2.9 million and 17 million, respectively.^[1]

2018: Number of visa applications from Russians by country

2018 Data

2016: Approval of the implementation of the electronic system of authorization of entry into Europe

In November 2016, the European Commission approved the introduction of the ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System) electronic entry authorization system in Europe in order to strengthen security measures and combat illegal migration. Experts say the new IT system could be targeted by cybercriminals, especially in light of a major migration problem in the region.

The ETIAS, to which many other state-level IT systems will be connected, will provide an additional level of verification of the identity of people entering Europe without visas. The system is designed to address gaps in information relating to visa-exempt passengers by collecting and pooling data that may be needed by EU authorities before these individuals arrive at the Schengen border. Passengers will know in advance exactly if they can enter the Schengen area. Read more here.

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