The European Commission on Friday pledged to tighten visa issuance for Russian nationals amid a political backlash against France, Italy and Spain, which continue to welcome hundreds of thousands of Russian tourists every year.
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The proposal, which will arrive next year and therefore not affect the upcoming summer season, will be limited in scope, as visa issuance remains the responsibility of individual member states, with Brussels providing only supranational oversight.
“We will propose to introduce targeted restrictive visa measures to further address security risks stemming from hostile actions by third countries,” Markus Lammert, the Commission’s spokesperson for migration, said on Friday afternoon.
“This is part of the revision of the Visa Code next year.”
The Commission declined to provide additional details.
The comments came in reply to a strongly worded letter sent earlier this week to the Commission by a coalition of 11 European countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
Iceland and Norway are not in the EU but belong to the passport-free Schengen Area.
The Swedish-led joint call denounced the diverging application of the guidelines introduced in the early months of Russia’s war on Ukraine, meant to de-prioritise Russian applications for non-essential travel and strengthen the focus on border and security risks. Multi-entry visas were phased out in 2025 in favour of single-entry ones.
“The uneven implementation of these guidelines across Member States leaves much to be desired, as it lacks both solidarity and consistency,” the letter says.
“Fragmentation weakens our leverage, undermines public trust, and risks sending contradictory signals at a moment when clarity and resolve are needed.”
The letter then calls on the Commission to present new “restrictive and binding” visa measures “as soon as possible”, to improve the implementation of the 2022 guidelines and to provide regular statistical updates on visa issuance for Russian nationals.
On Friday, the executive attempted to defend its track record, noting that the number of Schengen visas granted to Russian nationals had dropped from an annual average of four million before the full-scale invasion to roughly half a million in 2025.
“Restricting the issuance of visas to Russian citizens has been a top priority for the Commission from the very start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022. We have taken unprecedented action, and we will continue to do so,” Lammert said.
However, three tourist-friendly countries stand out in the bloc.
In 2025, France issued the highest number of visas to Russian nationals, at just under 180,000 — a significant increase compared with 2024. Italy ranked second, with just under 160,000, despite a slight decline from the previous year. Spain came third, at just under 100,000, broadly stable year on year.
The three countries were implicitly criticised in the 11-strong letter.
“It has been deeply troubling to witness increasing numbers of Russian tourists enjoying leisure travel on European beaches and in European resorts while missiles and drones continue to strike civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” the document says.
Opponents of the Swedish initiative argue that the visa numbers merely reflect how larger countries generally receive and process more applications than smaller ones. They also contest suggestions that travel permits undermine collective EU action against Moscow, as the Russians responsible for the war were already being sanctioned.
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