Eastern EU states bordering Russia have threatened to adopt “national measures” to slash the number of Russian citizens entering their countries and the bloc’s free-travel Schengen zone if the EU fails to agree on a collective approach.
The threat from the five member states comes ahead of a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers on Wednesday to debate the issue, which has sharply divided the 27-member EU as it seeks to continue punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
In a joint statement seen by the Financial Times, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania demanded that the European Commission propose “respective measures on visas” that would “decisively decrease the flow of Russian citizens into the European Union and the Schengen area”.