08 Feb New TEMPER Working Paper «Inventory of visa policies and agreements: Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom»

Visa policy is one of the most successful harmonized EU policy field. This report shows that European legislation regulates for which countries nationals, for how long, and for which reasons MSs can issue a short-stay visa. Besides this general framework, the analysis of national legislation shows that MSs retain certain capacity to shape visa policy beyond the existing European harmonized framework.The margin of appreciation granted allows establishing different national pattern of entry refusal that need to be analysed in detail through an inventory of visa legislation in the selected country. The inventory shows that, although EU has succeeded in harmonizing a relevant immigration policy field such as short-stay visa, discretionary implementation and procedures at the state level cannot be neglected. This report finally points out that the challenge of overstaying mainly remains a question of weak internal controls, rather than of efficient entry controls.