"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

EU PRESSURING US TO ELIMINATE VISA REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL EU MEMBERS. WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Not content with pressuring the secularists in Turkey to give free reign to Islamists, the EU is now also pressuring the US to open up its borders to all EU members:
The European Union is planning to pressure the United States to include all EU nationals (27 member states) in its visa-waiver program. EU is insisting that the visa-waiver be fully reciprocal since all EU member states allow US citizens to enter without visas. "U.S. officials say Greece and most of the newer EU members still fail to meet criteria for joining the visa-waiver program."
Melissa Petri brings up some good reasons why the US might want to keep visa requirements for these 12 less than fully industrialized countries - illegal workers, etc. But she leaves out something that we think might be a little more significant: if this becomes the precedent, what happens if Turkey - with its 40 million Muslims and recent penchant for electing Islamist parties - joins the EU? On one hand we have the EU promising to let Turkey join just as soon as they loosen military control and therefore become more Islamist - and on the other hand, we have the EU demanding that the US drop travel restrictions on anyone they let join.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

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