Brussels, 24/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 24 January, the European commissioner for home affairs began a two-day visit to Moldavia. A Commission press release explained that during this visit she would present Prime Minister Vlad Filat with the Commission's action plan on liberalising visa procedures. The action plan intends to provide a list of criteria for Moldavia, so that its nationals can have a visa for travelling to the EU. This plan was adopted by the Council on 16 December last. This action plan includes the country on the Schengen “white list” (list of countries whose citizens can enter and stay up to 3 months in the Schengen area without a visa). It focuses on the guarantees Moldavia must provide on document security, border management, public order and security, the management of external relations and the fight against organised crime and human trafficking. It involves a two-phased plan, with an initial series of identification points on the political framework (legislation and planning) and the second series of more specific criteria, which cover effective and sustainable implementation of appropriate measures, including concrete results on the ground, explains the Commission.
The dialogue on the action plan began on 21 November 2009 during an EU-Republic of Moldavia Cooperation Council, explained the Commission and was put into practice on 15 June 2010. There is already a facilitation agreement on these procedures between the EU and Moldavia, which has existed since 1 January 2008. These procedures allow Moldavian nationals to obtain visas more rapidly for travelling to the EU. They also stipulate that visas can be free for a number of categories of nationals, such as students, business operators and journalists. At the end of 2010, the Commission also adopted a liberalisation action plan with Ukraine. (S.P./transl.fl)