(Updates with agreement, quotes, changes dateline)
By Manca Ulcar and Zoran Radosavljevic
BRDO, Slovenia, March 13 (Reuters) - The European Union and
the United States agreed on Thursday to defuse a crisis over
visa deals by allowing talks between Washington and individual
EU states to run in parallel with EU-U.S. negotiations.
Washington's decision to sign separate visa deals in recent
weeks with several ex-communist central European countries
instead of with the EU as a whole sparked tensions within Europe
and across the Atlantic.
Critics said this divide-and-rule approach broke ranks with
EU solidarity and infringed on the bloc's competence on visas.
"(Our) common goal is to achieve secure visa free travel in
full compliance with applicable laws between the EU member
states and the United States as soon as possible," a joint
statement agreed after talks in Slovenia said.
"Those matters that fall within national responsibility will
be discussed with national authorities while those that fall
within EU responsibility will be discussed with EU authorities,"
they said, without spelling out what fell under EU competence
and what could be included in bilateral deals.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the
talks had brought clarification "to relieve what I believed has
been a lit bit of unnecessary stress over the proceedings of the
last few weeks".
Most old EU states are part of the U.S. visa waiver
programme, which allows people to travel without visas, but not
11 of the 12 mostly ex-communist countries that joined the bloc
in 2004 and 2007, along with older member Greece.
WAIVER FOR ALL BY OCTOBER?
Washington's refusal to extend a visa waiver systematically
to all EU newcomers caused resentment in countries that are
among the most loyal U.S. allies -- some with troops fighting
under American command in Iraq and Afghanistan.
EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said
Brussels wanted all EU states to be treated the same way and to
enter the U.S. visa waiver programme by October, even if
bilateral political talks continued in parallel.
"My proposal will be to go ahead with political discussions
from now until the summit in June ... and then to introduce visa
waiver programmes for all members states in October," he said.
Chertoff gave no assurance on the timeline, saying only he
expected some countries to enter the programme this year.
While Brussels has pressed for a blanket agreement for all
EU countries not yet in the programme, some of the bloc's new
member states, eager for quick visa-free travel, lost patience
and preferred to forge ahead with individual pacts.
Washington signed separate deals with the Czech Republic,
Estonia and Latvia, which agreed to enhanced cooperation on air
security in return for a quick prospect for entering the visa
waiver programme, undermining EU unity on the issue.
Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary are expected to sign similar
deals later this month.
(Writing by Ingrid Melander, editing by Paul Taylor)
