The Commission of the European Union has referred Estonia to the EU Court of Justice as the country has failed to provide an adequate remedy against a visa refusal, annulment, or revocation.
Announcing the news today, the Commission said that the referring of Estonia to the EU Court is a result of Estonia not properly applying the visa policy legislation when it refused a visa, Schengen.News reports.
This is a result of the action of Estonia that has not adequately applied visa policy legislation.[/blockquote]
In line with the Visa Code, EU member states must give visa applicants the right to appeal against a visa refusal, annulment, or revocation under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights gives concerned visa applicants the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal when their rights are violated.
However, as the Commission has explained, the law of Estonia only gives the right of appeal before two non-judicial administrative bodies, raising concerns among the authorities about the applicants’ rights when they want to make an appeal for having their visa refused, annulled, or revoked.
Commission Launched Infringement Procedure Against Estonia in 2013
The EU Commission decided back on February 21, 2013, to launch an infringement procedure against Estonia.
When this procedure was launched, the Commission sent a formal letter to the country and also followed up with another reasoned opinion after a year and another one in 2015.
Nonetheless, despite such calls from the Commission, Estonia has not yet adopted a law that allows for a judicial appeal against a visa refusal, annulment, or revocation.
This has significantly impacted visa applicants, as to date, they cannot appeal their refused, annulled, or revoked visa to the court.
[blockquote author=”EU Commission”]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.
Now that Estonia has been referred to the EU Court, the country needs to take measures in the matter. If it again fails to meet the requirements set by the Commission, the latter may ask the EU Court to impose penalties against Estonia.
In this particular case, it is not known what the penalties may be as they are calculated after taking into account several factors, such as the importance of the rules that have been breached, the period that the EU law has not been applied, and the country’s ability to pay the fines.