EU ambassadors want to allow British citizens entering the Schengen travel area post-Brexit to stay for up to 90 days without a visa, the Council said Friday.
The allotted 90 days can be taken in any 180-day period, the Council said, and adds the U.K. to a list of countries that already includes Australia, Canada and Brazil.
The Council said its decision was based on an assumption of reciprocity by British authorities for EU country nationals heading to the U.K. for a short stay, and warned that visa requirements would quickly be imposed should that not be the case.
“In the event that the United Kingdom introduces a visa requirement for nationals of at least one member state in the future, the existing reciprocity mechanism would apply and the three institutions and the member states would commit to act without delay in applying the mechanism,” the Council said in a statement.
Should the deal be approved, under the original proposal from the European Commission visa-free access would also apply to Britons visiting Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, in addition to EU countries Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus — which are not yet members of the Schengen zone.
Ireland, which is not in the Schengen zone, has a bilateral arrangement on cross-border travel with the U.K.
The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee unanimously backed the proposal to allow visa-free access earlier this week, and will now work out the final text of the deal with the Council.