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.

"We believe that those efforts will come to fruition in the next six months and ... we don't expect that the European Union will be unhappy with the progress that's been made," Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told Reuters.

It was unclear what effect the EU retaliation, if carried out, would have. A State Department spokesman said that some EU members already require U.S. diplomats making short visits to obtain a visa, while others do not.

The U.S. refusal to extend its visa waiver systematically to all EU newcomers causes resentment in countries that are among the most loyal U.S. allies -- some with troops fighting under American command in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Bush administration's decision earlier this year to sign separate visa deals with several ex-communist central European countries -- instead of with the EU as a whole -- created tension within the bloc and across the Atlantic.

The United States has said it plans to allow some new EU states to join its visa-free program this year. The EU executive says its threat is meant to put pressure on the United States to carry out its plan.

"It is unacceptable that nationals from some third countries can benefit from visa-free travel to the EU while some of our fellow EU citizens can't travel visa-free to those countries," EU Justice and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot said in the statement.

The Commission said on Wednesday it is also in dispute with Singapore and Japan.