MikeLigalig.com

23 minutes ago



BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union threatened on Monday to take action if Canada did not drop by the end of the year visa requirements for citizens from at least one new EU member from the ex-Soviet bloc.

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EU countries have reciprocal agreements with other nations under which visa requirements on either side are waived. But Canada has yet to change rules under which citizens from eight eastern European countries still need visas to get in.

"The Commission urges Canada to show some tangible progress by lifting the visa requirement for one or two member states by the end of this year, otherwise appropriate measures could be proposed," the EU's executive arm said in a statement.

It did not specify what action it could take. The countries involved are Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Latvia Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, all of which have joined the 27-member bloc in successive waves since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall which marked the end of the Cold War.