Brunei citizens could be forced to arrange for a visa to visit the European Union as the country, together with the US and Canada, has so far failed to provide full reciprocity to EU nationals.

Currently, while Brunei citizens are allowed to enter each country of the 28-nation bloc without a visa and stay for up to three months, citizens of EU member state Croatia still need a visa to enter Brunei, which, in the view of the European Commission, is a violation of its strict reciprocity principle that applies to all members of the EU which are pursuing a common visa policy.

Although Brunei immigration officials said that they had already decided to lift the visa requirement for Croatian nationals last year, the European Commission noted that the policy was still not in practice yet. If Brunei lifts this particular visa requirement “in the coming weeks,” then its citizens would be spared from applying for a Schengen visa in the future.

A decision on the issue by Brussels is expected for July 12.

“Visa reciprocity is a fundamental element of the EU’s common visa policy,” said Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship.

“Full visa reciprocity” will stay high on the agenda of the EU’s bilateral relations with these countries and the bloc will continue pursuing a “balanced and fair” outcome, the commissioner added.

The US still demands visa for citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania, and Canada for Bulgarians and Romanians.

Canada and the US were given 24 months to correct non-reciprocity after they were notified that there are issues. If they don’t, “then this can be a cause for suspending the visa waiver for their citizens” for an initial period of twelve months, an EU release stated.

Meanwhile, the European Tourism Association slammed the proposal to suspend Schengen visa waivers for the three countries, saying at least in the case of possible visa requirements for Canadians and US citizens it could cost “millions of jobs” in what already is a difficult time for the tourism industry in Europe whose service revenues stand at $50 billion annually. The associations estimates leisure travel to fall roughly 30 per cent when such a visa regime is imposed.

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