The German government increasingly voiced dissatisfaction with the planned introduction of a visa-free regime with Georgia, Ukraine and Kosovo, reports Die Welt.
According to the publication, concerns the subject, in particular, expressed at a closed meeting in Parliament the interior Minister of Germany Thomas de Mezieres. He referred to foreign criminal groups and mentioned the “Georgian criminals,” adding that for Georgia organized crime has become a big problem.
In addition, as Die Welt explains, after the introduction of visa-free regime for Western Balkan countries in Berlin feared further “mass abuse of the right to asylum”.
In this context, Germany supports the introduction of the amendment, according to which a visa-free regime for individual countries — EU members can be cancelled. Germany in this matter supports France. Both countries came to the conclusion that the abolition of the visa regime should be postponed than that, as noted by Die Welt, will be unhappy with Eastern Europe and Brussels.
The German government also plans to achieve step-by-step procedures for the abolition of visas for each country separately.
This week diplomatic sources, Reuters reported that the EU has deferred its decision on the simplification of the visa regime for Georgian citizens. The same decision will be taken in respect of Turkey, Ukraine and Kosovo, they noted, linking this with the precautions relating to the theme of migrants.
The sources also noted that the decision of a question on Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo is hampered by the situation with Turkey: after a few weeks ago, the EU and Ankara forced a deal on migrants, the negotiations ran into problems due to the fact that Turkey refused to change its anti-terrorism laws.
