| Visas for Russians will be simplified in a year and a half An agreement on visa facilitation between Russia and the European Union may be signed before the end of this year. This pleasant news for many of our fellow citizens was announced yesterday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after a meeting with his Portuguese colleague Diogo Freitas do Amaral.
The guest supported Minister Lavrov’s optimistic attitude, noting that “we need to wait until the existing problems are resolved within the EU, because this is a matter of the competence of the European Union, and not of its individual members.” In other words, the European bureaucracy is ready to sign the necessary papers with Moscow. But she does not promise Russians a quick solution to visa problems.
The draft agreement on facilitating the visa regime between Russia and the EU and the readmission agreement were initialed in Luxembourg on October 12 at a meeting of the Permanent Partnership Council on Justice and Internal Affairs by Italian Deputy Chairman of the European Commission Franco Frattini and Assistant to the Russian President Viktor Ivanov. This was only a preliminary signing of the documents, which recorded the completion of work on them and the approval of the achieved formulations. It does not at all exclude amendments by higher authorities. It is expected that the final form of both documents will be signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on the Russian side.
The Russian representative office of the European Commission (EC) explained to Vremya Novostey that “the final signing of the agreement on visa facilitation is expected at the end of 2005 - early 2006.” Then the document must be ratified by the Russian State Duma and the parliaments of all 25 EU member states. According to estimates from the Russian representation of the EC, “ratification of the agreement and its entry into force is expected within 18 months from the date of final signing,” that is, in mid-2007.
Some relaxations of the European visa regime for Russians are already in effect. France, Germany and Italy became pioneers on this path a year ago. The Europeans say they will allow the issuance of short-term visas within ten days based on a written request from the host party to entrepreneurs, participants in cultural, sports and scientific exchanges, journalists, representatives of universities, organizations involved in international transport, as well as close relatives of citizens living in Russia and the EU . The relief is not too big, but the processing time has sped up a little, and the package of documents required to obtain a visa has become less voluminous. “The criteria for issuing multiple-entry visas for these categories of citizens will also be simplified,” the EC told us, without explaining the specific essence of the promised simplifications.
With the entry into force of the visa facilitation agreement, the Russian citizens listed above will be able to receive multiple-entry visas for up to five years. Holders of a Russian diplomatic passport will not need EU visas at all for 90 days of each calendar half-year.
The EC “VN” representative office emphasized that financial benefits await citizens of both sides: “The cost of a visa will now be fixed and amount to 35 euros.” Previously, the amount of consular fees for Russians at different embassies varied, and the cost of a Russian visa for EU citizens ranged from 100 to 200 euros. For EU citizens, the period of a Russian multiple-entry visa will also increase to five years, while it is currently limited to a year. However, Europeans will not be able to obtain such visas until appropriate amendments are made to Russian legislation.
Yesterday, Sergei Lavrov recalled that the ultimate goal of negotiations with the EU, announced at the St. Petersburg Russia-EU summit in 2003, remains visa-free travel. On Smolenskaya Square, VN was reminded that this point was recorded in the preamble of the initialed agreement.
Progress towards a visa-free regime between Russia and the EU was hampered by the lack of an agreement on readmission, that is, on the mutual return of illegal migrants to the territory from where they crossed the border. Since many illegal immigrants from South and Central Asia entered Russia, Moscow resisted this demand from Brussels. The return of illegal immigrants from third countries from Europe to Russia threatened our country with large financial costs.
An agreement has now been reached on the phased introduction of readmission. At first, it will concern only Russian citizens. In addition, in the next three years, citizens of those countries with which Moscow itself will conclude readmission agreements will be returned to Russia from Europe. However, after a three-year period, that is, somewhere from 2010, all third-country citizens, as well as stateless persons, will be returned to our country upon readmission. Katerina LABETSKAYA |
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