Amid the presence of hundreds of thousands of Russian tourists in the European Union, EU parliamentarians are demanding immediate counter-measures from Brussels. Verena Mertens of the CDU told the newspaper “Welt” that European holidays must not become a normalcy for Russian citizens as long as the Kremlin continues its brutal war of aggression. She argued strongly against “simulating normalcy towards an aggressor state while Russia attacks the Ukrainian civilian population every day.”
Mertens insisted that the EU Commission must use all available leverage to prohibit the generous issuance of tourist visas to Russian nationals through changes to Schengen visa regulations. She stressed the considerable security risk involved in visa issuance, noting that among those entering Europe, there could be individuals capable of violence who are being instrumentalized by the Russian state.
Jan-Christoph Oetjen of the FDP, an interior policy politician in the EU Parliament, urged the EU Commission to put forward proposals for revising the Visa Code as soon as possible to end the “unsustainable situation” regarding the granting of tourist visas to Russian citizens. He criticized a planned 2027 deadline for new rules, warning that Russian tourists would continue to appear in European seaside resorts in droves even next year.
Following the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, EU states agreed on guidelines stipulating that visas for Russian nationals should only be granted in justified exceptional cases. Almost all member states adhered to this, with the exception of the Mediterranean countries of Italy, France, and Spain, which apparently anticipated an additional economic boost from Russian tourists.
According to the EU Commission, in 2025, Italy granted 161,121 visas (an increase of 8,900 compared to 2024), France issued 156,547 visas (up 32,657), and Spain provided 123,359 visas (up 11,822). The Commission authorities reported that last year, Russian citizens received 77 percent (477,878) of all visas issued by Schengen countries. Back in early June, eleven European states formally criticized the generous visa granting practice employed by the three Mediterranean nations in a letter to the EU Commission.
