MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/: Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev has told French senators that Russian citizens could be deprived of their right to travel in the European Union and asked the counterparts to pay attention to the issue of granting Schengen visas.
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is currently drafting a report on the Schengen visa issuance. Our colleague, a member of our delegation to PACE, Senator [Irina] Rukavishnikova is the rapporteur. We would welcome if our French colleagues drew attention to the issue and cooperated in drafting this report, as a solution must eventually be found, at least for humanitarian considerations," Kosachev said on Friday at a meeting of the Russian upper house’s Foreign Affairs Committee and the French Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces, devoted to drafting a joint report on Russian-French relations.
Kosachev recalled that Russian citizens are required to apply for a Schengen visa to visit France.
"It happens that — perhaps, you do not experience it but our citizens experience that frequently — a certain European country (for example, Estonia or Poland) denies entry to some Russian citizen out of their own considerations, but this national decision automatically applies to the entire Schengen zone. Therefore, the Russian citizen, who for some reasons (I do not know whether they are justified or unjustified) becomes an unwelcome guest on the territory of a particular country of the European Union, is deprived of the opportunity to visit any country within the European Union," Kosachev said.
"In our opinion, it is a problem. It is a violation of the right to travel, or human rights," the senator added.
