Visa policy of the Schengen Area

Outgoing Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said on Sunday she had "no information" when asked to comment on news that Turkish police had gracked down on a massive people smuggling ring.

Turkey has proposed that the European Union sets a new schedule for the visa liberalization deal for Turkish citizens, as part of the troubled March 18 deal under which Turkey agreed to halt the flow of Syrian refugees and other migrants into the EU via Greece. 

The president of the European Union said the 28-nation bloc will be seeking to hold a summit meeting with Turkey in the coming months to discuss the strained relations between the two.

The Serbian National Assembly's Committee on Foreign Affairs has approved a draft law to confirm a visa abolishing agreement between Serbia and China.

The agreement aims to scrap visas for holders of ordinary passports.

A Turkish-EU deal on migrants is yielding positive results, the European Commission said on Dec. 8, but no progress was made on the issue of visa-free travel for Turks even though the process has been unblocked for Ukrainians and Georgians.

"Our comprehensive European approach on migration is showing positive results," European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said.

Bulgarian lawmakers voted on Friday to introduce tougher requirements for long-term visa applicants who represent foreign entities.

Under the new amendments, foreign nationals will be allowed to extend their stay in the country if they cannot leave it for a reason not depending on them. The change means a restoration of the previous regime which included such an option.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has arrived in Brussels for the EU summit. Poroshenko's visit is aimed mainly at liberalising the visa regime for Ukrainians and the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

The European Commission has submitted a proposal for the introduction of an additional system for border control of foreigners who have the right to travel to the EU without a visa, reported BTA.

The European Commission on Wednesday called for the introduction of prior security checks for visa-free travellers entering the EU's passport-free Schengen zone in order to prevent potential terrorist threats.

If the proposal is approved, citizens of Balkan countries that do not need visas to travel to Western Europe will have to undergo online security checks.

The EU has allowed 5 states in Schengen to continue the checks for illegal migrants along their internal land frontiers until February 2017.

The final decision was adopted by the governments of the member-states after a proposal by the European Commission.