The European Union renewed its call on the United States on Friday to drop visa requirements for travellers from new EU member states, saying they were being discriminated against by Washington, according to Reuters. "I appreciate the efforts already made by the U.S. here but we must accelerate this and end this situation of discrimination against the new member states," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a speech in Pittsburgh, a copy of which was released in Brussels. The EU's executive Commission said in January it wanted progress by July on visa waivers for the 10 mainly ex-communist member states. It has said it has powers to recommend sanctions such as requiring U.S. diplomats to ask for visas. But U.S. officials have said introducing the waivers could take years to be put into effect. U.S. officials have said the 10 member states do not yet comply with objective criteria, such as achieving a low rate of visa refusals and "overstays" -- when citizens overstay the duration of their visa. Greece and the EU's 10 new member states except Slovenia are not part of the U.S. visa waiver programme. The United States does not require visas from citizens of the other 15 EU states if they have machine-readable passports. Brussels has also complained that Canada and Australia have made no real progress in signing reciprocal accords with the new member states for visa waivers.
