The German government is considering the merits of an EU visa ban on Russian officials implicated in the murder of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Markus Loning, the German foreign ministry’s commissioner for human rights, told EUobserver on the margins of a conference on Russia in Helsinki on Thursday (10 November): “We’re discussing it. It is an option that my office is bringing to the table, into the debate. I can’t say I have completely convinced the rest of the government, but it is something I am putting on the table again and again.”
One option is to seek agreement by all 27 EU countries to blacklist the officials. Germany could also unilaterally red-flag the names in the passport-free Schengen system, forcing all 25 Schengen members to keep them out.
Loning said: “It’s a lot more effective if we do it at EU level because it makes little sense to ban someone from getting a German visa if he then goes to the Italian consulate, gets a visa and travels to Germany anyway.”
He noted it would be against Schengen rules to bypass a German ban, but added: “People do it. In reality, they do.”
Justifying the potential move, he explained: “From the outside it’s very hard to really know the chain of command [in Russia]. But I think there’s a lot to be said for the argument: ‘Let’s list the guys we know are doing it, the judge, the prosecutor. Let’s list them and let’s make sure other judges see the risk they are taking, see that they should be more independent than they are.”
Loning said anybody put under a ban should enjoy right of appeal at the EU court in Luxembourg: “We should make one thing very clear – the rule of law also applies to us. If we list people we must give them judicial remedy.”
Andrew Rettman