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European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
https://www.yahoo.com/news/european-...131026287.html
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European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
The European Parliament has voted to end visa-free travel for Americans within the EU.
It comes after the US failed to agree visa-free travel for citizens of five EU countries—Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania—as part of a reciprocity agreement. US citizens can normally travel to all countries in the bloc without a visa.
The vote by the parliament's civil liberties committee means Americans will have to apply for extra documents for the next 12 months.
The European Commission discovered three years ago that the US was not meeting its obligations under the reciprocity agreement but has not yet taken any legal action.
Australia, Brunei, Japan and Canada were also failing in their obligations, but all four have lifted, or are soon to lift, any visa restrictions on travel for EU citizens.
Following the committee's vote the Commission must act to suspend the visa waiver for Americans, but the European Parliament or the Council of Europe may object.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
So obama was putting travel restrictions on poland romania cyprus and bulgaria? Why?
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
That's a good question, especially since Poland is the biggest fan of the US.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
Probably out of concern that citizens of those countries might actually stay and live in US illegally.
Anyway, kudos to EU for sticking up for its less influental members.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
Maybe that's why? Maybe it looked like a lot of the Poles would immigrate to the US? Contrary to what Trump tried to portray, the Obama administration was quite stingy on immigration. It's just that Trump's policy is more extreme in comparison. I don't agree with the policy towards those countries.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Husar
That's a good question, especially since Poland is the biggest fan of the US.
Being in the USA I heard a lot of jokes about "stupid Poles". Perhaps it was one of the reasons? No one would like throngs of stupid people roaming the neighborhoods at will.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Gilrandir
Being in the USA I heard a lot of jokes about "stupid Poles". Perhaps it was one of the reasons? No one would like throngs of stupid people roaming the neighborhoods at will.
poles
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
KukriKhan
poles
Welcome back Kukri.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Pannonian
Welcome back Kukri.
He has been popping in to make these sorts of posts every few months. Looking at his post history, his last substantive post was in 2010:
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Originally Posted by
KukriKhan
What time is it?
How drunk am I?
Am I married?
How long since... you know?
Following a gap of nearly two years, he returned with the following:
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Originally Posted by
KukriKhan
has
His profile puts his age in the 60s.
:shrug:
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Montmorency
He has been popping in to make these sorts of posts every few months. Looking at his post history, his last substantive post was in 2010:
Following a gap of nearly two years, he returned with the following:
His profile puts his age in the 60s.
There are private reasons, but it is great to see Kukrikhan still returning and enjoy his time at the Org.
He is a man of few but profound words.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
The EU is acting more and more like a country.
Given the vast difference between countries such as Germany, and the rampantly corrupt Romania, I'm not surprised that there are different standards for entry.
Let's all watch how glacially slowly the EU moves on this one.
~:smoking:
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
rory_20_uk
The EU is acting more and more like a country.
That would be great if it were true.
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Originally Posted by
rory_20_uk
Given the vast difference between countries such as Germany, and the rampantly corrupt Romania, I'm not surprised that there are different standards for entry.
Indeed, Germany doesn't meet certain anti-corruption standards, something the EU complained about a while ago.
https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/si...chapter_en.pdf
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Some issues have still not been dealt with, such as the lack of sanctions for corruption of
elected officials and the absence of a ‘revolving door’ policy, especially in the public sector.
Further steps could be taken to promote integrity and raise awareness of foreign bribery
among small and medium-sized enterprises.
Remember when Gerhard Schröder greenlit a pipeline from Gazprom, then lost the election and began working for Gazprom almost immediately afterwards?
At least in Romania the citizens hold their government accountable as we saw recently.
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Originally Posted by
rory_20_uk
Let's all watch how glacially slowly the EU moves on this one.
What exactly are you referring to? The OP says "The vote by the parliament's civil liberties committee means Americans will have to apply for extra documents for the next 12 months.", so it would seem the EU has already moved. I can only assume you are referring to how fast glaciers fall apart due to global warming.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
To equate one official jumping to a private sector job hardly compares to the corruption Romania has - and the EU has commented on - for years. That it is bad enough for a revolt hardly is a good thing. Except if all states are Bad and we should all run to wards the Enlightenment that is the EU.
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Originally Posted by
Husar
What exactly are you referring to? The OP says "The vote by the parliament's civil liberties committee means Americans will have to apply for extra documents for the next 12 months.", so it would seem the EU has already moved. I can only assume you are referring to how fast glaciers fall apart due to global warming.
Yes it does state that - and I am sure that is what you want to hear and so don't bother to look elsewhere. But sadly that is not the whole truth. Link The EU has known for, oh 3 years or so and has done nothing. This vote means that it can go back to the parliament to have a vote else the MEPs can go to the Courts of Justice... It could happen in 12 months - let's see if it does.
~:smoking:
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
rory_20_uk
Yes it does state that - and I am sure that is what you want to hear and so don't bother to look elsewhere. But sadly that is not the whole truth.
Link The EU has known for, oh 3 years or so and has done nothing. This vote means that it can go back to the parliament to have a vote else the MEPs can go to the Courts of Justice... It
could happen in 12 months - let's see if it does.
Eh, that is also in the OP:
Quote:
The European Commission discovered three years ago that the US was not meeting its obligations under the reciprocity agreement but has not yet taken any legal action.
Australia, Brunei, Japan and Canada were also failing in their obligations, but all four have lifted, or are soon to lift, any visa restrictions on travel for EU citizens.
The second paragraph makes it sound like the EU notified the offending countries and gave them some time to come around. It further indicates that some of them want to come around but are not there yet because they move like glaciers themselves. My interpretation is that they now think that the lack of action on the part of the US warrants this action on the part of the EU, that they basically waited three years on purpose, not that they were unable to do this faster.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Greyblades
So obama was putting travel restrictions on poland romania cyprus and bulgaria? Why?
Was the visa-free travel from those countries never there in the first place or removed?
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Husar
Remember when Gerhard Schröder greenlit a pipeline from Gazprom, then lost the election and began working for Gazprom almost immediately afterwards?
Is that news? All politicians do something like that (except those that decide they want to retire and pick a committee of their choosing, doing little to no work for a huge salary). It wouldn't even be news if it wasn't Gazprom in question. If he went on to sit on the board of, let's say, Siemens, no one would care.
It's still incomparable to the level of corruption in Romania and its neighbourhood.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Hooahguy
Was the visa-free travel from those countries never there in the first place or removed?
Those countries used to be under the visa waiver program. This was dropped because too many of the visitors were interpreting '<90 days stay for tourism' as 'move in, get a job, count on the amnesty later.'
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Sarmatian
Is that news? All politicians do something like that (except those that decide they want to retire and pick a committee of their choosing, doing little to no work for a huge salary). It wouldn't even be news if it wasn't Gazprom in question. If he went on to sit on the board of, let's say, Siemens, no one would care.
It's still incomparable to the level of corruption in Romania and its neighbourhood.
Of course it is not news, I asked whether people remember it.
Why did the US agree to the reciprocity agreement in the first place then? Did they not know anything about these countries when they signed it and only found out how terrible they are later and hoped noone would notice if they excluded them?
Of course one could ask why they're in the EU in the first place if they're that terrible. We should have built a wall instead.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Husar
Of course it is not news, I asked whether people remember it.
Why did the US agree to the reciprocity agreement in the first place then? Did they not know anything about these countries when they signed it and only found out how terrible they are later and hoped noone would notice if they excluded them?
Of course one could ask why they're in the EU in the first place if they're that terrible. We should have built a wall instead.
I'm not attacking EU decision. In fact, I applaud it. Sure, from the US point of view, the current system probably makes sense, but if EU is supposed to work, it must protect its member states, regardless of size or influence. It's now up to US to determine if this worth the higher cost they would have if they allowed all EU members visa free access.
On the whole, though, it's not like US citizens are that much inconvenienced, so this is mostly symbolic. Still a step in the right direction.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
In a similar case, the EU warned the UK repeatedly because the UK didn't do anything to stop illegal immigration of Chinese goods. Now that nothing has been done by UK authorities, the EU's anti fraud office suggests to fine them. As I said above, it seems to be the normal MO to warn countries repeatedly and give them time to fix things before punishments are dished out.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/bu...-35512630.html
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Clothes and shoes were imported through the UK at fictitiously low values for years to avoid duties, the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) found.
Investigators warned HM Revenue and Customs a number of times but they failed to take tough action to curb the problem, it said.
The fraud has cost the EU nearly two billion euro in lost duties between 2013-16 and Olaf has called on the European Commission to reap back the cash from the UK.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
Romania repeatedly asked for visa-free US travel for it's citizens, but we never got that. At least we got Canada.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
edyzmedieval
Romania repeatedly asked for visa-free US travel for it's citizens, but we never got that. At least we got Canada.
Again, probably not a negative comment about Romanians so much as concern that they would stay past the "implied" visa times.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
There's nothing worth seeing east of Vienna. Now that I think about it, Croatia might be west of Vienna. The best part about Croatia was drazen petrovic. Man what I wouldn't give to see a united Yugoslavia at the 92 Olympics. The dream team may have actually had to show up the second half.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
I still cry myself to sleep the times I think what the football and basketball team could have achieved.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Sarmatian
I still cry myself to sleep the times I think what the football and basketball team could have achieved.
Yet Croatia as a football team achieved much in 1998. Never could Yugoslavia boast of similar.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
Only a few of the players who achieved that would be able to find a spot in Yugoslavian team. 92-98 would have been their years to shine.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...wsstory.sport9
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Sarmatian
Only a few of the players who achieved that would be able to find a spot in Yugoslavian team.
How do you know the united Yugoslavia would have done better or at least shown the same results? The latter is brought about not by the simple sum of great players. There have been examples in football history (and I'm sure not only in football) when the conceit of a gang of great stars brought their team to no success (like the debacle of France after their winnning the world cup). Otherwise Barcelona would be a constant Champions league winner and Brazil - the world cup holder. Should I dwell on the significance of coaching, the team spirit and simple luck the combination of which may lift the team up to the top?
Very often I hear similar comments from Russia on how great the current USSR football/basketball/biathlon team might have been, had the USSR survived. They add the number of medals won at the Olympics by the former USSR states and make far-fetched conclusions. In sports (like in many other fields) simple addition of the best ingredients doesn't guarantee the first class dish. But what you (and many Russians) feel I consider phantom limb pains caused by the nostalgia for the lost empire.
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
Strike For The South
There's nothing worth seeing east of Vienna.
:brood:
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
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Originally Posted by
edyzmedieval
:brood:
Relax, he's from Texas. They barely tolerate the rest of the states in the USA, much less anything 'furrin.'
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Re: European Parliament ends visa-free travel for Americans
And, let's face it, he probably didn't even see Vienna. Being a Texan, he's probably expecting Vienna to come to him.