Brussels Archives - Com Namibia

US Visa Waiver for Europeans at the Center of Brussels Talks

September 21, 2026 by Amara Nambinga

États-Unis : pourquoi l’exemption de visa des Européens est au cœur des discussions à Bruxelles - Depositphotos.com Auteur izanbar

TourMaG – Why is the European visa waiver exemption to the United States today at the center of discussions between Brussels and Washington?

Nicolas Le Page: The United States has added new security cooperation requirements to the conditions under which a country may participate in the Visa Waiver Program, which allows French citizens to travel without a visa for a stay of up to 90 days using an ESTA.

Washington now asks partner countries to establish a strengthened partnership in border security and information exchange, with a deadline set for December 31, 2026.

The European Union therefore had to find a framework enabling its member states to meet these requirements while respecting European data protection rules. The aim of the current negotiations is therefore more to preserve the visa exemption than to challenge it.

TourMaG – Specifically, what new data do the United States want to be able to exchange with the European countries, especially regarding biometric data?

Nicolas Le Page: It is not a matter of granting the United States broad access to European databases. The arrangement provides for targeted verifications that may use identity data and fingerprints.

In the event of a match in a national database, certain information could be confirmed, such as the person’s identity and possibly their photograph.

If a relevant element appears, for instance regarding a serious conviction or a threat to security, additional information could then be requested. These exchanges remain bounded by European law and the agreements concluded with each state.

The mechanism is also reciprocal: European countries will likewise be able to query the United States.

The December 31, 2026 Deadline Is Not a Hard Cutoff

TourMaG – Where does the main point of friction lie today between the United States’ security requirements and the European Union’s personal data protection rules?

Nicolas Le Page: The disagreement mainly concerns the limits to be set on these exchanges. The United States wants to have more information up front to assess travelers who may pose a risk. The European Union, for its part, wants to ensure that these data are used only when necessary and proportionate.

The discussions therefore center on what information can be shared, how long it can be kept, whether it might be transmitted to other authorities, and the rights of the individuals involved.

TourMaG – Does the December 31, 2026 deadline pose a real risk to keeping European countries in the Visa Waiver Program, or can travelers stay calm?

Nicolas Le Page: It is a significant deadline, but it should not be seen as a hard cutoff. It is not planned that on January 1, 2027 Europeans automatically lose their visa exemption. After that date, the United States will assess compliance with this new requirement when evaluating each country’s continued participation in the Visa Waiver Program.

The latest developments are rather reassuring, since the European Union and the United States have progressed toward a framework enabling member states to meet the American requirements. At this stage, there is nothing to indicate that the French will need to apply for a visa to travel to the United States in 2027.

For travel agencies, the message is simple: the current rules continue to apply.

Nicolas Le Page est aussi directeur de la publication de VisasNews - Photo Linkedin

TourMaG – For a French traveler planning a stay in the United States in 2027, should one anticipate any evolution of ESTA or entry formalities, and what should travel agencies know today?

Nicolas Le Page: It is important to distinguish two files.

The agreement negotiated between the European Union and the United States concerns mainly information exchanges between authorities and does not necessarily mean that the traveler will have to provide more information in their ESTA.

In parallel, the American administration indeed intends to evolve ESTA, particularly with more personal information and potentially data related to social networks. But these new requirements have not yet come into force, and the information regarding social networks remains optional today.

For travel agencies, the message is therefore simple: the current rules continue to apply. They should, however, closely monitor the developments of the ESTA form and the Visa Waiver Program in the coming months, as well as updates published by Action-Visas for travel professionals.

Under the current framework, a French traveler who is eligible can continue to prepare a trip to the United States in 2027 based on visa-free entry with an ESTA.

Aviation: Brussels Targets Carbon Quotas, Threatens Prices and European Airlines? [ABO]

September 13, 2026 by Amara Nambinga

ETS : Bruxelles veut étendre les quotas carbone, une menace pour les compagnies européennes ? - Depositphotos.com Auteur symbiot

Hurtigruten

Hard times for the Gulf hubs.

While geopolitical tensions and thus instability persist in the region, affecting air traffic, the appeal of the Gulf’s strongholds— notably the Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi hubs— could further diminish in the years to come.

Indeed, in a proposal for a directive from the European Parliament and the Council, it is learned that the European Commission plans to extend its Emissions Trading System, the ETS, beyond intra-European flights.

Eric Drésin, secretary general of ECTAA (the European association of travel agents and tour operators), told TourMaG that this project is very recent, “we are really at the very beginnings of discussions on these issues. But there could be an increase in costs for the airlines.”

Briefly remind what the ETS are, Emissions Trading Schemes in English, which can be translated as: systems for trading emission rights. A system introduced in 2005 obliging companies to purchase rights to emit CO₂.

Chinese and Americans Spared by Brussels

Regarding air transport, these emission quotas apply only to flights within Europe.

But starting in 2029, Brussels aims to adjust the criteria and include the scheme for flights whose destinations are less than 5,000 kilometers from Frankfurt.

Would then be affected a portion of Africa, of Russia and especially the Middle East with carriers such as Emirates, Qatar, Etihad or even the “little” Riyadh Air. This extension, on the simple principle that the farther you go the more you pay, can be understood. However Brussels is up against the hard law of the strongest which seems to become the law “full stop.” The famous 5,000 kilometers thus completely spare the United States and China, which had suggested that in the event of new “taxes” there would be retaliations.

Carbon quotas: European airlines protest

With this proposed ETS extension, at first glance one might think Brussels is restoring a bit of fairness in the fierce competition between European carriers and those from the Gulf that will now be impacted.

But most major European-based airlines think the opposite. For groups like Air France-KLM, Lufthansa or IAG, this extension would cover hundreds of new routes among those they operate and thus ETS costs would truly explode.

In the columns of the Dutch daily De Volkskrant, the carrier KLM had said that it already pays €172 million for emission rights, i.e., 1.5% of its total costs, and viewed a massive price rise with dismay in the coming years.

By means of a note published last May, Air France-KLM informed Brussels that it opposes “firmly any extension of the EU ETS to all flights departing the European Union to destinations outside Europe.” The group asserts that such a measure would further increase the decarbonization burden already disproportionately borne by European carriers. It adds that it would amplify distortions of competition vis-à-vis non-European carriers and could provoke retaliation measures from third countries.

And this document, produced by Air France-KLM’s top management, goes well beyond a mere protest. It is also a counterproposal to Brussels’ upcoming revision of the European emissions trading system, to which the group says it would contribute more effectively and profitably to the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal.

Among the proposed measures, and besides maintaining the current geographic scope of the ETS, Air France-KLM also calls for extending the free carbon quotas granted to carriers using SAF to beyond 2030, a limit set by Brussels.

Known as FEETS (Fuel EU ETS Support), this temporary mechanism allocates free carbon quotas called SAF Allowances to carriers using SAF to reduce their ETS bill.

This transitional measure, designed as an encouragement to adopt SAF, is supposed to end in principle in 2030 but for Air France-KLM, that limit is incompatible with industrial SAF investments that are planned over 15–20 years and with the ramping up of SAF-fuel obligations, which remains for a long time far more expensive than kerosene and will have to be carried in the tanks at 70% by 2050.

Plans to Abandon Routes?

In Air France-KLM’s document, the group also seems ready for significant concessions, notably route abandonments, provided that this SAF Allowances scheme is extended to intermodal practices feeding the group’s hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol.

In other words, if Brussels were to reward airlines with free carbon quotas for transporting passengers by train to their hub, certain routes could simply be dropped.

The group would like to convert air passengers into rail passengers for those connecting to long-haul flights, replacing short- and medium-haul flights that fall under the EU Emissions Trading System.

We are thinking of certain links between French provinces and CDG, or other European cities near Amsterdam such as Brussels.

A little revolution.

One Trip, One Ticket: The EU Project to Simplify Train Travel Unveiled in Brussels

June 15, 2026 by Amara Nambinga

Streamlining train bookings has long been a perennial pipe dream in the European Union (EU), despite regular calls to end the fragmentation of the rail network across twenty-seven national systems, which makes travel unnecessarily complicated and costly.

The growth of rail, however, remains crucial for Europe’s climate ambitions. At the outset of her second term in July 2024, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had pledged a single, unified booking system.

To turn this ambition into reality, Brussels is poised, according to sources close to the matter, to table a proposal that would compel operators to sell the tickets of their rivals on their own websites and to share their data with booking platforms.

Currently, “booking cross-border rail travel in Europe remains unnecessarily complicated”, notes Vivien Costanzo, a German member of the European Parliament from the Social Democrats. “A European rail system needs simple reservations, reliable connections, and clear rights for passengers. It is only under these conditions that rail will become a genuine European alternative to short-haul flights”, she warns.

But the proposal is likely to meet fierce opposition from national operators. In Brussels, the “European Rail Community” (ERC), a lobby of EU operators, denounces an “unprecedented interference” by the Commission. “I know of no case where anyone is forced to sell a competitor’s product. Imagine Lufthansa being forced to sell Ryanair tickets”, says Alberto Mazzola, an ERC official interviewed by AFP.

The Network Has Shrunk

Train tickets in Europe are currently primarily sold by national operators. The new legislation would require them to display offers from other companies, enabling passengers to compare prices and book a trip in one go.

A 2025 YouGov survey for the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) shows that nearly two in three people forego a trip because the booking process is too complex. Studies also indicate that booking a train journey takes on average 70% more time than booking a flight. “With more competition in rail, passengers will benefit from better services and lower prices”, says Jan-Christoph Oetjen, a centrist Member of the European Parliament.

The Commission should also update passenger rights in cases of missed connections, regarding compensation or flexibility to board the next train.

This initiative comes as the war in the Middle East has driven up kerosene prices and raised concerns about supply difficulties for the aviation sector during Europe’s peak tourist season. It could offer railway operators the “opportunity” to “change the narrative” around international train travel and to invest in improving services, believes Victor Thévenet of Transport & Environment.

Rail accounted for only 0.3% of the transport sector’s greenhouse gas emissions in Europe in 2022, compared with nearly 12% for civil aviation. But between 1990 and 2021, the EU railway network shrank by more than 12,000 kilometers, eurodeputies lamented in 2024, vowing to halt this trend.