Public Hearing on „Visa Package” in the European Parliament
Brussels, 17 June 2015
On the invitation of the chairperson of the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament, we presented our assessment of the European Commission’s proposal to amend visa policy, which would influence issuance of visas to citizens of, among others, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Krzysztof Mrozek (Open Europe Programme) discussed statements of visa applicants, who – through our “Visa Whistleblower” project – reported problems in obtaining of a Schengen visa. Our assessment of the EC proposal was generally positive, however we proposed some more radical changes, including considering of a possibility to introduce a 10-year visa.
Among over a hundred people in the audience, there were MEPs, representatives of the European Commission, border guard services, tourist and art industries along with experts.
Full video streaming of the meeting, with Krzysztof Mrozek speech (30:40-39:30) is available here:
More about Visa Whitleblower: http://visa-free-europe.eu/about-us/visa-whistle-blower/
Commission’s proposal “Visa Package”:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-347_en.htm
Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, EU visa, Georgia, Russia, Schengen visa, Ukraine, visa facilitation, visa liberalisation