The European Union has introduced new measures aimed at increasing the fees for Schengen visa applications, SchengenVisaInfo reported on Wednesday.
The EU Commission has presented a draft to increase the fee from €80 to €90 for adults and from €40 to €45 for children, it added.
Additionally, the commission proposed an increase for countries not cooperating in the readmission of their citizens who remain in the EU without proper documentation.
In this regard, the EU plans to hike the fee for such countries from €120 to €135 and from €160 to €180.
Similarly, the EU has suggested that external Schengen visa service providers will also be allowed to apply a higher fee.
The external service providers that receive Schengen visa applications on behalf of the member states will be allowed to charge a fee up to half of the standard visa fee.
Meanwhile, the fee for the extension of a Schengen visa has been kept unchanged at €30.
The same stressed that a revision would not affect the visa fees for countries that have already reached facilitation agreements.