The European Commission has adopted its seventh report on breaches of the principle of visa reciprocity in third countries. This principle provides that those countries whose nationals do not require visas to enter the European Union grant the same right to nationals of all Member States.

According to the Commission's report on application of the principle of visa reciprocity in third countries, despite the significant progress made by certain third states there are still a few cases where work needs to be done. Since the previous report on visa reciprocity adopted in November 2010, citizens from all EU Member States no longer need a visa to travel to Brazil thanks to the entry into force of the EU-Brazil short stay visa waiver agreement for ordinary passport holders in October 2012.

In the case of Japan, the authorities have extended the temporary exemption granted to Romania pending the implementation of some measures agreed between the two countries. Once these amendments are put into effect the exemption will be permanent. Full visa reciprocity has already been reached in the case of Brunei, which no longer requires visas for EU citizens as well as for citizens from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

However, despite these advances, situations of non-reciprocity in the recognition of visa exemption still remain in the case of the United States of America and Canada. EU citizens from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania and Poland still need visas to enter the United States, while Canada requires visa for citizens of the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania travelling to the country.

For these situations where reciprocity in visa recognition is not respected, the European Commission has proposed a new mechanism of recognition to the Parliament and the Council in order to make the mechanism more efficient and to allow the European Union greater pressure in these cases. Both institutions have not yet reached a final agreement on the proposed mechanism.