Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-13-Speech-1-072"
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"en.20101213.16.1-072"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, I will address all the questions. Thank you for placing this very important debate on the agenda.
It is also an important agreement in quantitative terms. According to statistics provided by Russia, more than 1.5 million visas were issued to EU citizens in 2008 and the same year, Member State consulates issued 3.5 million visas to Russian citizens. That is more than a quarter of all Schengen visas issued worldwide.
All EU and Russian citizens benefit from the general facilitation provided by this facilitation agreement, such as a reduced fee of EUR 35. Certain categories are also exempted under specific facilitation; there is a visa-free waiver and also a multi-entry visa.
The Commission has evaluated this facilitation and has found that it works quite well. However, there are some shortcomings, as were referred to. To address these, we adopted a month ago a recommendation for directives for the renegotiation of the visa facilitation with Russia. This relates entirely to further facilitation with regard to documentary evidence and the length of the visa application procedure, the extension of the provisions for the issuing of multiple-entry visas and a visa-free waiver for a number of well-defined categories of applicants.
As regards the specific issue of the implementation of Article 10 of the visa facilitation agreement, which provides for the simplification of the registration procedure, we noted in our evaluation that Russia had adopted some simplification; it is now possible to register by post, for example. The registration fee will be abolished by next year, but some of the other measures, such as the translation of the registrations into English and the possibility to register online, have not yet materialised. We are raising this issue with our Russian counterparts and in different fora, and we hope that this will take place very soon.
Concerning the other Eastern Partnership countries, there have been other steps as well. This was also in your question. We have visa facilitation with Moldova and Ukraine as from 1 January 2008, but we are also renegotiating these agreements.
Regarding Belarus, draft negotiating directives for visa facilitation were adopted by the Commission a month ago, and we will recommend multiple-entry visas with a long period of validity for bona fide travellers and set deadlines for processing visa applications, as well as possible exemptions for visa obligations for holders of diplomatic passports.
We will also adopt draft negotiating directives for a visa facilitation agreement with Azerbaijan and Armenia next year.
On the correct application of the visa liberalisation scheme that Mr Weber referred to, namely, that applicable to Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Council decided, as was also said, to grant visa-free travel to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia in 2009. The decision came following intensive dialogue and substantial progress by these countries on the main matters covered by the visa liberalisation dialogues. The dialogues have proved effective in implementing a lot of important reforms but, as was also pointed out, the visa-free regime comes with responsibilities and the countries concerned should take the appropriate measures to make sure that there is no abuse of the visa waiver.
Some Member States have experienced an increased number of asylum applications from these countries – notably Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. These have to be assessed on an individual basis according to our legislation. We have taken a number of steps to address this situation: we have had high-level meetings with the Ministers of the Interior on the two questions, and there was a high-level visit to the two capitals by the Belgian Presidency and the Commission.
The authorities of these two countries have taken some steps. There have been new information campaigns organised to inform the citizens. There are instructions to the border police to deliver and to perform increased controls on people exiting the country and to inform travellers about the risk of unfounded applications for asylum.
Let me start by thanking Mrs Griesbeck for her support and her work in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the EU-Georgia agreement with the adoption of a favourable opinion. Following the crisis in Georgia in the summer of 2008, it was decided at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of the European Union to step up relations with Georgia, including visa facilitation measures.
When, earlier this autumn, we proposed lifting the visa requirement for the citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, both countries committed themselves to setting up information campaigns for their citizens on the rights and obligations arising from the visa waiver, and this has been done. These are very ambitious campaigns. In addition, after approval by the European Parliament and the Council, the Commission made a commitment to intensify post-visa liberalisation monitoring for all the Western Balkan countries.
There will be two parts to this. On the one hand, we will continue to assess the sustainable implementation of reforms by the countries concerned through the stabilisation and association process – in particular, in the area of justice, freedom and security. On the other hand, we will also act as a prevention mechanism against new situations of high in-flow of persons from the region. The collection of the necessary operational information that could help to prevent these situations was done early this year, and we will have active participation from Frontex, Europol, immigration liaison officers, Western Balkan police liaison officers and the secretariat of the Police Corporation Convention for South-East Europe, supported by the incoming presidencies – Hungary and Poland.
All the information exchanged and collected will be shared by EU Member States and, of course, when appropriate, with the countries of the Western Balkans. Such information will also feed into the Commission assessment to be carried out in the first semester of next year on post-visa liberalisation monitoring. I consider that these measures should contribute to avoiding the misuse of the visa-free travel regime, and I am confident that close cooperation between the countries of origin and EU destination countries, supported by the Commission, offers an effective response. We will, of course, continue to report regularly to the European Parliament and to the Council on the results of this monitoring mechanism, for the first time in June 2011.
As you mention, Mrs Griesbeck, it is standard EU policy that a visa facilitation agreement cannot be offered to a third country without a readmission agreement, so the European Council’s decision implied that the two should be negotiated and concluded in parallel.
I am very grateful to Mrs Griesbeck for having also noted the important step forward in relations between Georgia and the EU that these two agreements represent. The agreement is very much along the lines of a standard EU readmission agreement, covering nationals as well as third country nationals, and also safeguarding – as was said – respect for human rights through a ‘non-effective’ clause and an article on data protection.
The agreement also provides for the establishment of a joint readmission committee, tasked with monitoring implementation of the agreement. This is an important step towards smoother mobility between the people of Georgia and the European Union.
Georgia has already waived the visa requirement for EU citizens, and this agreement will facilitate mobility for Georgian citizens. The agreement will indeed make it easier, cheaper and quicker for Georgian citizens – more than 60 000 per year – to obtain a Schengen visa.
It will bring other concrete benefits: a 10-day deadline will be set for the processing of applications and the visa fee will be reduced from EUR 60 to EUR 35. There will be certain categories of applicants who will be free of charge: students, journalists, children, pensioners, the disabled, etc. They can also benefit from a simplified supporting documents requirement and a multi-entry visa if they need to travel. Also, holders of diplomatic passports will be entirely exempted from visa obligations, which will further strengthen official contacts between the EU and Georgia.
Mrs Griesbeck mentioned the evaluation. This has been slightly delayed, but I will present it by the beginning of next year – I hope no later than February. I will be happy to discuss it with the Civil Liberties Committee and Parliament. You also made reference to the programme for Pakistan. This has only been operational for 13 days so it is a little early to evaluate it, but we will, of course, be happy to keep you updated.
Concerning the issue raised by Mrs Ojuland of the visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia, this has been in force since 1 January 2007. It is one of the eight visa facilitation agreements that we have concluded. Particularly important elements are that it applies on a reciprocal basis to EU citizens also, as they are currently under a visa obligation for travelling to Russia."@en1
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