At a meeting of EU foreign-affairs advisers on 24 April, a group of member states led by Estonia and Poland floated a proposal that would deny Schengen visas to Russian nationals who fought in Ukraine. Reporting by Euractiv and Brussels Signal indicates that the measure is gathering momentum ahead of the 27-28 June European Council, with Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib among those expressing ‘principled support’ for targeted restrictions. Unlike earlier suspensions of visa facilitation, the new plan would focus specifically on individuals with documented military involvement, rather than on Russian citizens at large. Under draft options circulated in Brussels, border officers would be able to consult a shared watch-list compiled from battlefield footage, open-source intelligence and Ukrainian judicial records. The legal basis would be Article 25 (1)(a) of the EU Visa Code, which allows refusal on public-policy or security grounds. Belgian diplomats say the country’s support links directly to its domestic security doctrine: the Federal Police already screen arrivals for war-crimes indicators under a 2025 circular. A Schengen-level instrument would, they argue, close loopholes that allow flagged individuals to shop for visas at more permissive consulates. For corporate mobility teams the immediate impact is limited, since few assignees fall into the target group. The bigger issue is processing time: any additional security layer risks longer checks for all Russian applicants, including IT specialists frequently posted to Belgium’s data-centre corridor. Immigration lawyers therefore recommend factoring in extra lead time for work-permit applications and encouraging clients to lodge visa files in Moscow rather than third-country consulates that may see resource cuts. Moscow has yet to comment, but past EU visa measures have triggered reciprocal restrictions and staffing caps at EU missions in Russia—moves that, if repeated, would further strain appointment availability. Belgium’s consulate in St Petersburg already operates at half capacity following the 2024 expulsions.
Source: Brussels Signal
