ArmInfo.Armenia will continue to "struggle" on the issue of liberalizing the visa regime with the European Union. This was announced by the Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on the air of the public TV channel.
According to him, Armenia manages to quite successfully implement the requirements of the existing agreements on visa facilitation and readmission.
According to Mnatsakanyan, the institutional capacity of Armenia is enough to counter the challenges pointed by European partners in terms of migration flows, border security, and Armenia is ready to further strengthen them in order to convince partners that Yerevan is ready for liberalization . However, in his words, Armenia is not ready to put up with a further delay for political reasons in the timing of the start of a dialogue in this issue.
At the same time, the Armenian Foreign Minister found it difficult to say when the dialogue would start, assuring that this issue is on the agenda of the foreign ministry, and work in this direction is being carried out on a daily basis. To note, on December 17, 2012, an agreement was reached on visa facilitation between Armenia and the EU, which entered into force on January 1, 2014. The agreement has accelerated the procedure for issuing visas at the consulates of the EU countries located in Yerevan. Now the decision on granting a visa is made within ten days, and in case of emergency - within two days or less. In addition, the agreement provides for a reduction in the list of documents required for obtaining a visa. The price of the visa after the signing of the agreement was reduced to thirty-five euros against sixty euros, which tourists paid prior to ratifying the agreement. Another significant advantage of the simplified visa regime is a free visa for children up to twelve years of age, as well as for people with disabilities and their accompanying persons. This document involves the introduction of a simplified procedure for obtaining visas for entry into the Schengen countries for members of official delegations, journalists, businessmen, scientists, athletes, schoolchildren and students, close relatives of EU citizens, and also for people who are sent to EU countries for treatment. Participants in various international conferences, exchange programs and other public events of an international character will also be able to obtain visas under the simplified regime. In general, the list of various categories of the population who will have the opportunity to visit the European Union under a simplified scheme is quite extensive.
Citizens of Armenia with diplomatic passports are completely exempted from the need to obtain a visa. The simplification of the visa issuance scheme also affected the terms of stay of the citizens of Armenia in the territory of the European Union countries. Now this period is ninety days for each one hundred and eighty days.
At the same time, a readmission agreement was also signed. The Armenian side has repeatedly stressed the need to start the second phase of negotiations on the liberalization of the visa regime, but the EU has not yet given the green light to the process.