Friday, April 7, 2017

Europe a step farther away

For the first time in my conscious life, people from the US like me will not be able to enter Europe freely and without a visa.  This comes after a European Parliament vote, in which it was decided that, since the US denies visa-free entry to five EU member nations (Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Romania), the EU will revoke the visa-free reciprocal agreement with the US.  This will be a minor inconvenience for me if I decide to travel to Europe sometime soon, but I'm sure it will have a pretty major impact, both economic and personal, on many US nationals, their European family members, non-US nationals who had visa-free access to the EU thanks to a US visa on their passport, and perhaps most of all for the many people in Europe who make their living from tourism.

So at this point my Colombian family members, who for most of their lives regarded their Colombian passport as a liability that brought them restricted access and enhanced scrutiny when they tried to travel to most countries, will now have easier access to Europe than I do.

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