Overview
- A group led by Sweden and joined by the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Iceland and Norway formally asked the European Commission on Thursday to propose laws that make it easier to deny tourist visas to Russian citizens.
- The letter quoted EU data showing Schengen tourist visas for Russians rose to about 477,878 in 2025 from 440,558 in 2024 and said the rise shows current non-binding guidance is applied unevenly across the bloc.
- The Commission so far has issued only guidance and Brussels suspended the 2007 visa facilitation agreement with Moscow in 2022, so any binding EU-level change would need a formal proposal and is unlikely before the summer tourist season.
- France, Italy and Spain are the largest issuers of tourist visas to Russians and their economic exposure plus the EU’s qualified-majority voting rules make a quick, bloc-wide ban politically difficult.
- If no EU law is adopted national approaches will likely stay fragmented with border states already sharply limiting tourist visas and Estonia separately pushing for Europe-wide blacklists of Russian war veterans.