(Adds EU talks, Czech Deputy Prime Minister)
By Patrick Lannin
RIGA, March 12 (Reuters) - The United States signed up
Estonia and Latvia on Wednesday to bilateral deals that will
lead to visa-free travel, risking further European Union ire a
day ahead of tough EU-U.S. security talks.
U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff signed
the deals in Estonia and Latvia a day before he was due to meet
European Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini in
Slovenia.
The Czech Republic signed a similar deal last month,
sparking much uproar within the EU. The executive European
Commission and some EU states have accused the signatories of
ignoring EU solidarity and the bloc's competence on visas.
Critics said that pact infringed on the EU's authority over
visa and border policy and voiced fear that Washington may use
such deals to hand over more intrusive personal data on air
passengers. Prague says it acted legally.
Frattini said on Wednesday that Thursday's talks with the
United States would be friendly but tough because of the
signature of these individual pacts.
Chertoff said Washington was not undermining EU powers,
adding signatories would have to wait a long time for visa-free
travel if they waited for a deal at the level of the whole EU.
"I have assured our European partners in Brussels that we
have the utmost respect for EU law and EU competences," he told
a news conference in Riga, Latvia's capital.
Most EU states have U.S. visa waivers, but not 11 of the 12
mostly ex-communist states that joined the bloc in 2004 and
2007, as well as older member Greece.
TWIN-TRACK
The accords spell out what Estonia and Latvia need to do to
be allowed to join the visa waiver programme.
Frattini and a number of EU states wanted to negotiate the
visa deals for the whole bloc at once, but some countries
excluded from the visa waiver programme said they cannot not
wait any longer.
EU diplomats agreed on Wednesday to defuse the intra-EU
crisis by adopting a "twin-track" approach, Czech Deputy Prime
Minister Alexandr Vondra told Reuters.
Vondra said this would allow talks on individual deals to go
on while experts will work on a mandate for the EU executive,
defining what exactly EU and national competences on visa waiver
are. "We can proceed in our bilateral talks," Vondra said.
"Some issues need to be clarified, the area of shared
competences ... but we are not ready to wait any more," he said
in a telephone interview.
Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins his country should
not wait until for visa-free deals with all other EU countries.
Poland, the biggest EU newcomer, is bitter that Washington
refuses to include the country in the visa waiver scheme even
though Polish troops have helped in the U.S.-led military
campaign in Iraq.
Countries signing bilateral pacts do not get immediate
visa-free status, but Washington will make access easier when
they fulfil a number of security criteria, even if their visa
rejection ratio is high.
In the Latvian case, this involves tight control on passport
issuance, information sharing and, if direct flights begin,
allowing armed air marshals on U.S. carriers to and from Latvia.
Estonia agreed to U.S. inspections at its border guard
service, said Estonian Interior Minister Juri Pihl.
Hungary is expected to sign an agreement later this month.
Frattini hopes the EU and the United States could endorse
the visa waiver programme for all 27 EU states at a joint summit
in June and implement it by the end of 2008.
(reporting by Patrick Lannin in Riga and Ingrid Melander in
Brussels; additional reporting by David Mardiste, Manca Ulcar
and Darren Ennis; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
