On Thursday European Union lawmakers voted to deny US citizens visa-free travel, as Washington continues to do the same to nationals from certain EU member states.The parliament claimed that it was "legally obliged" to address the issue as they were first notified in April 2014 that the US would not reciprocate the visa waiver right, along with Brunei, Japan, Canada and Australia.The European Parliament released a statement saying that "if a country does not lift its visa requirements within 24 months of being notified of non-reciprocity, the EU Commission must adopt a delegated act... suspending the visa waiver for its nationals for 12 months. The Parliament, by a show of hands, urged the Commission to adopt restrictive measures against U.S. citizens "within two months". The European Parliament vote is set to put pressure on the European Commission, the EU's executive, to enforce a one-year suspension as a tit-for-tat measure for Washington's denial of visa-free access to citizens of Poland, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria, all members of the 28-country bloc.
The European Parliament votes to end visa-free travel for United States citizens after the U.S. government failed to agree to visa-free travel for citizens of five European Union member states, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania. The resolution is non-binding.