European Commission to take Estonia to court over visa rules

TALLINN – The European Commission has decided to refer Estonia to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to provide effective judicial remedy against a visa refusal, annulment or revocation.

This is a result of the action of Estonia that has not adequately applied EU visa policy legislation, the Commission said in a press release.  

The EU Visa Code requires member states to provide for a right of appeal against a visa refusal, annulment or revocation, which should be implemented in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in particular, Article 47, which grants individuals the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal, when rights and freedoms under EU law are violated. However, the Estonian law only provides for a right of appeal before two non-judicial administrative bodies.

The Commission launched the infringement procedure against Estonia on Feb. 21, 2013 by sending a letter of formal notice and followed up with a reasoned opinion on Oct. 17, 2014 and an additional reasoned opinion on Feb. 27, 2015. To date, Estonia has not yet adopted a law providing for a judicial appeal against a visa refusal, annulment or revocation. This means that if a third country national's visa is either refused or annulled or revoked by the administrative authority, the third country national cannot appeal this decision in court. The Commission therefore considers that Estonia has failed to provide an effective judicial review against all decisions constituting a visa refusal, annulment or revocation under national legislation.

In a separate procedure, the Commission is calling on Bulgaria, Estonia and Ireland to correctly transpose EU law combating racism and xenophobia. The Commission on Thursday sent a letter of formal notice to Ireland and reasoned opinions to Bulgaria and Estonia for only partially and incorrectly transposing the Council framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia.

The aim of the framework decision is to ensure that serious manifestations of racism and xenophobia, such as public incitement to violence or hatred, are punishable by effective, proportionate, and dissuasive criminal penalties throughout the European Union. The Commission considers that Estonia does not correctly transpose the provisions related to the definition of the offense of incitement to hatred or violence, including the condoning, denial or gross trivialization of international crimes and the Holocaust.

Moreover, Bulgarian, Estonian and Irish laws do not, or not correctly, qualify the racist or xenophobic motivation as aggravating factors for all criminal offenses or ensure that national courts can take this motivation into account when defining the sentences.

The Commission also sent a letter of formal notice to Estonia in October 2020 and to Bulgaria in February 2021. The member states now have two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to send a reasoned opinion to Ireland as well as to refer Bulgaria and Estonia to the Court of Justice of the European Union.