Traveling to the U.S. could get much harder next year for Europeans, depending on the outcome of negotiations with the EU over changes to security protocols; failure to reach agreement could end the visa waiver program for Europeans.
The visa waiver program allows residents of certain countries, including almost all of the Schengen countries, to visit the U.S. without a visa after obtaining an ESTA from the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization. Similar systems are used by other countries, including the UK’s ETA and the coming-soon European ETIAS.
But, the U.S. and EU are in negotiations for an Enhanced Border Security Partnership that is meant to provide more security cooperation and more effective screening. The major issue is the U.S. demand that the arrangement include access to European police databases to identify ineligible applicants.
That issue could halt the negotiations because that access by an outside party runs into a number of privacy issues, since police databases in the U.S. include information on people who might have been suspected of something but not charged and other non-criminal material. The U.S. has now told EU officials that if access isn’t granted by the end of this year, it will unilaterally cut off ESTA for EU residents.
