visa obligation

Maintaining the exemption from visa obligations is not only a technical issue, but clearly a political matter as well.

Firstly, with regard to the visa obligation we do not want to allow any exceptions.

However, exemptions from visa obligations are always based on mutual trust and mutual commitments.

But then there is also the visa obligation which Russia has unilaterally imposed on Georgia since 5 December 2000.

After all, it is a clear departure from the Russian Federation' s unilateral decision to impose a visa obligation on Georgia.

Another important point is that it not only talks about visa obligations, but also of any kind of procedure that becomes an obstacle to free movement.

However, only genuine visa liberalisation will enable the economic and bureaucratic barriers erected by visa obligations to be removed.

It would be a serious mistake to reintroduce visa obligations for Serbia and Macedonia just because there have been problems in connection with these two countries.

When a third country on the positive list maintains or introduces a visa obligation for nationals of one, two or more Member States, the reciprocity mechanisms apply.

Also, holders of diplomatic passports will be entirely exempted from visa obligations, which will further strengthen official contacts between the EU and Georgia.

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.

Taking into account these two aspects, the Commission proposed transferring Ecuador to Annex 1 of Regulation 539/2001 which lists the third countries whose nationals are subject to the visa obligation.

I refer to the amendment that asks the Commission to submit a report on the incidence of the visa obligation and to make, if necessary, proposals for the simplification of the procedures.

As we were informed this morning by the rapporteur, Mr Díaz de Mera García Consuegra, the Taiwanese authorities have formally exempted all EU citizens from visa obligations.

Finally, we must not forget about easing visa obligations, stepping up people-to-people programmes and giving financial support to exchanges of young people from countries in the Eastern partnership with young people from the EU.

This issue cannot be governed by the regulation on visas which, owing to its legal basis, Article 62(2)(b) of the Treaty, is purely restricted to determining the lists of countries subject to, or exempt from, visa obligations.

We abstained rather than voting against this report, despite disapproving of the spirit of the report as a whole, solely because, compared with the current situation, it does slightly extend the list of countries with no visa obligation.

Unlike people with the nationality of a Member State, they were required to continue to comply with visa obligations in each separate Member State which they crossed in order to spend a holiday in their country of origin.

We owe this to the citizens of Taiwan, partly in the name of regional consistency, because we have already granted exemption from visa obligations to other countries and entities in the same geographical area with a similar level of economic development.

The European Union or any of these countries can either suspend the whole agreement or parts of it, on grounds of public interest, protection of national security, public health protection, illegal immigration or in the case of a country's re-introduction of a visa obligation.

With the lifting of the visa obligation for citizens from Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia in December 2009, there was a wave of people travelling from the Balkans, via Austria, to Central Europe and up as far as Scandinavia.

The mechanism does not apply in case a third country on the negative list maintains or imposes the visa obligation only on nationals of one or more member countries, or when the third country applies different conditions for citizens of different Member States.

As was said by the rapporteur and Mr Kovatchev, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and South Korea have already granted visa-free travel to Taiwanese citizens, and Canada is currently in the process of exempting Taiwan from the visa obligation.

In the explanatory statement, the rapporteur notes that two third countries, namely Canada and the United States, are still imposing visa obligations; on three Member States in the case of Canada, and on four Member States in the case of the United States.