Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-03-Speech-1-120"
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"en.20000703.9.1-120"2
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"Mr President, I should first of all like to pay tribute to the rapporteur, who has put forward a very concise and well-presented report and one that we are happy to support.
I would like to draw attention to one or two points from it. I hope that most Members in this House will agree with me that we should be moving towards a visa-free Europe, a Europe without barriers, at ease with itself and the rest of the world. I know we still have some stumbling blocks and Europe and the world are not quite ready for that at the moment. But the rapporteur has spoken about no exceptions and I am delighted to support him in that we have one single list.
I also want to draw attention to a few amendments. Amendment No. 2 is important. It says it is essential that we have procedures that are as smooth and as simple as possible and do not cause unreasonable expenditure for the applicants. Many of us in this House know as well as anyone that getting a visa can be a time-consuming and expensive business. We want to make certain in Europe that is not the case working in the opposite direction. Similarly, Amendment No 6 speaks about young people and encouraging them to take part in youth programmes by not giving them the extra burden of visas. That is important because young people are enthusiastic about the European ideal and we do not want to put anything in their way that makes them think that Europe is not welcoming and not moving in the right direction.
My last point concerns Romania and Bulgaria, particularly Romania, a country I know well. Every time I go there I have to go through the procedure of getting a visa and the Romanians say that as long as the European Union wants visas from them they will demand them from us. So we are taking a step in the right direction and I am happy to support the amendments and the report."@en1
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