EaP CSF (Visa subgroup) position on the Schengen visa issuance, visa facilitation and liberalisation processes

Strict visa regimes remain the most visible and sensitive obstacle for regular people-to-people contacts across Europe. Independent civil society monitoring initiatives show a variety of problems which legitimate travellers face when applying for visas, including ever-growing lists of documents required, unclear criteria of visa granting/refusal, low rate of long-term visas, non-respect of rules and provisions of the EU Visa Code and Visa Facilitation Agreements signed with some EaP states.

The CSF (Visa subgroup) welcomes the continued efforts by the EU and EaP countries with regard to the visa facilitations and visa liberalisation processes. We encourage progress in the Visa dialogue with Ukraine and Moldova and support their progress towards the 2nd phase of Visa Liberalisation Action Plans as soon as relevant benchmarks are met. No additional political requirements should be introduced. Georgia is to follow this path in the near future. Visa Facilitation Agreements with Armenia and Azerbaijan should be signed, thereby opening the way towards further steps in the visa liberalisation process.

We encourage the de-facto facilitated visa policy applied by the most EU Member State towards citizens of Belarus. At the same time, the visa liberalisation option based on the uniformed criteria should be open for Belarus as soon as the government in Minsk is ready to start implementing them.

We stress the need to ensure proper implementation of the provisions of the EU Visa Code and Visa Facilitation Agreements with EaP countries, already in place, with a special focus on issuance of long-term multiple-entry visas for bona fide travellers with a positive visa history.

We urge the EU to further harmonise visa requirements and procedures. While the EU Visa Code introduces a certain level of harmonization, further steps are needed to ensure unification of the criteria and procedures in all EU states consulates in the EaP, including lists of documents required, conditions for issuance of short-term/long-term visas.

We urge the EU to streamline the procedure of appeal in case of unsuccessful visa applications and ensure transparent and fair reconsideration of visa applications within a reasonable period of time.

We call upon the EU to provide more information on visa policy and legitimate travel to the EU by introducing a special web-page containing all relevant information regarding the legal provisions, general requirements and standard procedures of visa issuance including a FAQ page, etc. This would encourage further harmonisation of visa procedures by different EU states consulates.

We express our concern regarding unjustifiably high visa refusal rate by EU consulates in Georgia (15.3% in 2011, while average EU visa refusal rate in the world is 5%). This rate does neither reflect the actual quality/integrity of visa applications submitted by Georgian citizens, nor does it reflect the political dynamics of relations between the EU and Georgia. Therefore, we call upon the EU to identify the concrete reasons motivating the high rate of rejections and in cooperation with the Government of Georgia work towards a quick resolution of this problem.