Europe is backing down. The European Commission has decided not to require Americans to obtain visas to travel to Europe—for now.
The proposal to force Americans to secure paperwork for their visits has been kicking around the EU bureaucracy since late winter, a non-binding resolution was aired in the EU Parliament, but it failed to clear all the hurdles.
Proponents of the visa were miffed that America requires visas of eastern EU members like Bulgaria and Poland, while opponents warned of drastic damage to the tourism industry should it pass.
Technically, EU law requires the visa to be imposed as a way of forcing nations to treat all its members equally. But in practice, the market force of the United States (and of Canada, which also requires visas for Bulgaria and Romania, but plans to ease that soon) proved too powerful to contradict.
The situation may ignite again as politicians in the EU watch the Trump Administration's policy changes.