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EU foreign ministers agreed at a summit in Prague on Wednesday to suspend an agreement that simplifies the visa application process for Russian tourists, the Czech News Agency reports. The issue of Russian tourist visas was one of the topics on the agenda for the second day of the informal two-day summit. While on Tuesday the heads of diplomacy mainly debated relations between the EU and Africa, on Wednesday the focus of the discussions was Ukraine.

The EU already previously suspended the part of the 2007 agreement that covered Russian government officials and businessmen, and is now turning its attention to the clause concerning tourists. If this were also to be suspended, it would mean that visa applications submitted by Russian citizens would no longer have priority processing, which in turn would mean that obtaining visas to the Schengen area would be bureaucratically more demanding and more expensive for Russian tourists and they would have to wait significantly longer for them to be processed. However, no official conclusions are adopted at informal meetings.

A complete EU-wide visa ban for Russian tourists proved too divisive, with some member states, including Czechia, for the proposal while others were against. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said that the European Commission and other institutions still have to find a way to solve the problem of the Baltic states, which need to limit the movement of hundreds of thousands of Russians across the border for security reasons.

EU foreign ministers also agreed at the meeting that EU countries will not recognize passports issued by Russian authorities in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Thursday should remain overcast with day temperatures ranging between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius. However, despite the cloudy forecast, rain is not expected.

Hundreds of people arrived at the Kalich Theatre in Prague's Jungmannova street on Wednesday for a public farewell to popular Czech singer Hana Zagorová, who died on Friday, August 26. A long line of mourners of all generations formed before the start of the memorial service, which started at 11:00 a.m., with some fans arriving as early as seven o'clock in the morning.

The Kalich Theatre is where Hana Zagorová performed in her first stage musical role in the show Jack the Ripper many years ago. The hundreds of wreaths and flowers placed in the theatre will be taken to a site near the entrance to the Vyšehrad cemetery after the memorial service, where they will remain until the evening of September 3 for mourners to visit.

A private funeral mass was held on Tuesday in the church of St. Tomáš in Prague on Malá Strana for a closed circle of people including the singer’s family, friends, and colleagues.

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.