EU Visa Policy: To Deter and to Facilitate

EU law on visas is a relatively early arrival in EU competence, predating the Area of Freedom Security and Justice as a Maastricht Treaty (1991) addition to EU law. But the development of EU short stay visa law and the concretisation of its purposes did not develop until after the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999 with the incorporation of the Schengen system of border controls into EU law. The choice of legal instrument for Visa law has consistently been regulations which are directly applicable though in practice had to been accompanied by extensive handbooks in an effort to ensure consistent implementation. The Visa Code currently in force is limited to the issue of visas for entry and stay in the Schengen areas of 90 days out of every 180, thus it does not cover visas issued, even under EU law for other purposes such as family reunification. The development of EU visa law to achieve immigration control ends has resulted in substantial changes in framework, in the 2010s in particular with the abandonment of the principle of equality in visa rules in favour of differentiation depending on the country of origin of the visa applicant and its policy on admission of its nationals being expelled from the EU.