EU foreign ministers debate visa ban for Russian tourists

The issue of an EU-wide visa ban for Russian tourists was one of the topics on Wednesday’s agenda at an informal two-day summit of EU foreign ministers in Prague, the Czech News Agency reports. While on Tuesday the heads of diplomacy mainly debated relations between the EU and Africa, on the second day of the summit the debate was about Ukraine, including the issue of the Russian visa ban.

There is some disagreement over whether to impose a blanket visa ban, with EU states such as Poland, Czechia, Finland and the Baltic countries in favour of such a move and Germany, France and Slovenia against it. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke out in favour of the ban. However, ministers are expected to at least agree on suspending a visa facilitation agreement with Moscow, which would mean Russians have to wait longer and pay more for visas.

Czechia currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.