At the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council in Luxembourg on 1 October 2026, Poland’s deputy interior minister Maciej Duszczyk pressed fellow EU ministers to back a ban on entry for Russian citizens who hold only non-biometric passports and to tighten the issuance of tourist visas to Russian nationals. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Duszczyk said that “more and more member states” now support Warsaw’s position, especially after the attempted drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo aircraft in Leipzig last month that German investigators linked to Russian agents. He argued that traditional machine-readable passports are easier to counterfeit and hamper the new Entry/Exit biometric system launched across Schengen in April. The Polish initiative builds on the partial visa restrictions already adopted by the Baltic states and the Czech Republic in 2025 but would move the EU toward a bloc-wide policy, closing loopholes exploited by travellers who shop for visas in more permissive consulates. Diplomats said France and Italy—previously sceptical—showed “increased openness” but want legal services to assess proportionality and humanitarian exemptions. For corporate compliance teams, a future biometric-only rule would require auditing travel-policy databases to verify Russian employees’ passport type well in advance of travel into Poland or elsewhere in Schengen. Visa suppliers may also need to redesign appointment filters to reject non-e-passport applicants automatically once the regulation takes effect. Although no formal decision was expected at this Council, the item will return at the European Council summit later in October. If political agreement is reached, the Commission could table a draft regulation before year-end, leaving companies a tight window—perhaps six months—to adapt booking systems and duty-of-care briefings.
