The European Parliament has voted for a more flexible mechanism to suspend visa-free travel in the EU, including hybrid threats and “golden passports”, human rights violations and non-compliance with decisions of international courts as grounds, the European institution announced.

During a vote on Tuesday, MEPs, as stated, approved a reform of the EU visa suspension mechanism for 61 countries whose citizens can currently enter the Schengen area without a visa for short-term periods of up to 90 days within any 180-day period.

The legislation, already informally agreed upon by parliamentary negotiators and members of the EU Council, was approved in plenary with 518 votes in favor, 96 against, and 24 abstentions.

This mechanism allows the European Commission to reinstate a visa regime for a specific country if there are security concerns – initially temporarily, pending investigation and dialogue, and then permanently if the problems persist. Grounds include threats to internal security (including an increase in serious crimes committed by citizens of the country concerned), as well as a significant increase in the number of rejected asylum applications, refusals of entry, or the number of overstayed visas.

The reform, as reported, adds new grounds for suspending visa-free travel, namely:

---hybrid threats (e.g., state-sponsored instrumentalization of migrants);
---investor citizenship programs (or "golden passports") that raise security concerns;
---non-compliance with EU visa policy;
---violations of the UN Charter, international human rights law, or humanitarian law;
---non-compliance with decisions of international courts.