EU threatens tit-for-tat visa limits on US citizens

The European Union is threatening to impose tit-for-tat entry restrictions on all US citizens traveling to Europe in response to new US "anti-terrorism" laws. US tourists can now travel to Europe without a visa. Franco Frattini, justice and home affairs commissioner, is drawing up plans for an EU-wide system of "electronic travel authorization" (ETA) similar to that written into US law by President Bush late last week as part of new homeland security rules proposed by the 9/11 commission and endorsed by Congress. The ETA requires tourists from 14 mostly west European states, including Britain, benefiting from the US visa waiver program to register online and give details of their passport, travel plans and planned social and business meetings at least two days before departure. A similar scheme operates in Australia. The new system has heightened fears about privacy protection as the EU and US already exchange information about transatlantic passengers and airline manifests, with several would-be travelers refused entry to planes at US insistence. It is also seen as a deterrent to business travel to the US and to tourism in general, which is down 10 percent in the US since 2000 while it is up 13 percent in Britain and 20 percent in France. Frattini, whose director general for justice and home affairs, Jonathan Faul, discussed a reciprocal ETA system with Paul Rosenzweig, US homeland security deputy assistant secretary, in Brussels on Aug. 6, is to present initial plans to the EU's 27 interior ministers next month, his spokesman said. "A basic decision has not been taken yet," he said. East European members of the EU are angry that their countries are not in the US visa waiver scheme and Frattini wrote to Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, in June demanding that all 27 member states take part "to ensure full reciprocal visa-free travel."