Brussels Weighs a Rewrite of Schengen Visa Rules and Fees

The European Commission is planning a revision of Schengen rules on short-stay visas, according to The Local Italy, with the stated aim of making EU visa policy more coherent, secure and effective while facilitating legitimate travel. The proposal is at the deliberation stage; no text has been adopted.

Short-stay visas are the paper that lets a visitor from outside the bloc spend up to ninety days in the Schengen area within any hundred-and-eighty-day window. The fee, the application procedure and the treatment of repeat travellers are all in scope under a revision of this kind.

The announcement lands alongside the separate question of the Entry/Exit System, the automated border record that several member states have asked to delay. The two files touch the same traveller at different moments — one before the journey, one at the frontier — and a coherent visa policy is difficult to design while the border system it feeds remains in transition.