Council Decision (EU) 2016/268 of 12 February 2016 on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and Saint Lucia on the short-stay visa waiver

Ce que fait l'acte

to conclude the Agreement between the European Union and Saint Lucia on the short-stay visa waiver. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. BACKGROUND: Regulation (EU) No 509/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council amended Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders of the Member States and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement. The Regulation was adopted on 20 May 2014 and entered into force on 9 June 2014. BACKGROUND: the Commission negotiated on behalf of the European Union an agreement with Saint Lucia on the short-stay visa waiver. In accordance with a Council Decision, the Agreement has been signed and is applied on a provisional basis. It is now necessary to approve the Agreement on behalf of the EU. CONTENT: the Council is invited to approve the Agreement between the European Union and Saint Lucia on the short-stay visa waiver. For further details of the Agreement, please refer to the summary of the initial Commission proposal dated 5.3.2015 . Territorial provisions : the provisions of the future Agreement shall not apply to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Agreement sets up a Joint Committee of experts for the management of the Agreement. The Union is to be represented within that Joint Committee by the Commission, which should be assisted by the representatives of the Member States. The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Mariya GABRIEL (EPP, BG) on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and Saint Lucia on the short-stay visa waiver. The committee recommended the European Parliament to give its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement. To recall, the Agreement signed on 28 May 2015 provides for visa-free travel for the citizens of the European Union and for the citizens of Saint Lucia when travelling to the territory of the other Contracting Party for a maximum period of 90 days in any 180-day period . The visa waiver covers all categories of persons (ordinary, diplomatic, service/official and special passport holders) travelling for all kinds of purposes, except for the purpose of carrying out a paid activity. The report is accompanied by a short justification stating that this Agreement on the waiver of short-stay visas simultaneously represents a culmination of the deepening of relations between the European Union and Saint Lucia – which is politically highly significant in the context of the Cotonou Agreement – and is an additional way of stepping up economic and cultural relations and intensifying political dialogue on various issues, including human rights and fundamental freedoms. In the economic sphere , Saint Lucia is a young country, with limited resources and a small population, which has nonetheless succeeded in attaining or even exceeding some of the Millennium Development Goals, thereby attesting to its commitment to fundamental rights. Although its economy is mainly based on farming, Saint…