EU threatens to make U.S. diplomats get visas

By Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will propose forcing U.S. diplomats to get visas to travel to the European Union from January 2009 unless Washington moves toward granting citizens of all EU states visa-free entry.

"No tangible progress has been made regarding the United States despite all efforts of the Commission and individual member states," the EU executive said on Wednesday.

"Citizens of 12 EU member states continue to require a visa when traveling to the United States," a statement said.

"Therefore, the Commission will propose retaliatory measures e.g. temporary restoration of the visa requirement for U.S. nationals holding diplomatic and service/official passports as from January 1, 2009 if no progress is achieved."

Most older EU states belong to the U.S. visa waiver program, which allows their citizens to travel without visas. But this does not apply to 11 of the 12 mostly ex-communist countries that joined the 27-member bloc in 2004 and 2007, or to older member Greece.

Visas are a sensitive issue in EU-U.S. relations, and it is not the first time the EU has threatened to slap visa requirements on U.S. diplomats in retaliation for not extending a visa waiver scheme to all EU states.

A U.S. official said U.S. law does not allow Washington to extend a blanket visa waiver to all EU members, saying each country must meet set conditions on taking back deported nationals, promptly reporting lost and stolen passports and sharing information on "known or suspected terrorists."

While acknowledging no countries have been added to the U.S. visa waiver program since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the official said Washington was working "aggressively" to expand the program and he expected progress by January.  Continued...