The government of the Czech Republic, which presides over the Council of the European Union, has developed a compromise solution that will not completely ban, but significantly complicate the trips of Russian citizens to European countries. This is reported by Bloomberg.
The Czech proposal, which will be presented at an informal meeting of the heads of foreign affairs of the EU countries in Prague at the end of August, involves a complete suspension of the agreements on the simplified visa regime with Russia and Belarus.
Although this step does not mean a complete ban on the entry of Russians and Belarusians into the EU, it involves an increase in the visa fee from 35 to 80 euros, as well as an increase in the processing time of visa applications and the number of documents required for this.
As Bloomberg notes, an official decision will not be made following the results of the informal meeting of representatives of the EU states in Prague - it will take at least a few weeks, when the summer vacation will end in general.
