From the BBC, something very interesting in European politics:
The European Commission has warned it may force US diplomats to apply for visas to travel within the European Union from next year
The commission's move is in retaliation for the US' failure to broaden visa-free travel to all EU member states.
Currently, 12 EU member states require a visa when traveling to the US and the commission said "no tangible progress" had been made to change this.
Source
Most worthy of note, the EU is not suggesting that visitors traveling from the US to Europe need to get VISA's to travel, rather the measure is focused on "US nationals holding diplomatic and service/official passports."
Countries retaliating to the US draconian immigration laws is nothing new. Brazil has reciprocal policy that applies to all US nationals traveling to Brazil -- they must pay the same fees as a Brazilian going to the US, and they must now submit themselves for fingerprinting and have their photo taken, as Brazilians must do as part of the US VISIT program.
But I don't think this is really about changing US policy. I think this has all to do with the EU asserting itself as a strong, centralized Federal power, in much the way the Federal government of the United States had to assert its power over what had been independent Sates. Precisely, they are trying to avoid this kind of situation, where EU member counties circumvent the EU authority:
The lack of progress in talks on the matter between the EU and the US has led some countries - including Latvia and Estonia - to negotiate their own bilateral deals directly with Washington.
The EU wants to centralize power, saying "we are the ones who are to negotiate for the whole, we are the dominate body in international relations." In making that claim, they are moving towards their goal of creating a strong center of power, responsible for advocating for member countries in foreign relations.
Furthermore, I think the United States has no interest in seeing the EU centralize power and become more of a force on the international stage, and so I predict you will see the USA continuing to try to circumvent the authority of the EU and deal direction with member countries. Can anyone one say missile deal with Poland?
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