Brussels, 20/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - A problem among France, Denmark, Finland and Germany relating to the location of embassies is preventing people from a number of non-EU countries from obtaining Schengen three-month visas to travel to Denmark (and therefore to all other Schengen countries). Copenhagen says it will settle the problem speedily, according to a Danish Presidency spokesperson on Friday.
As reported on Thursday 19 January by European Voice, Denmark does not have embassies or consulates everywhere in the world, making use in some countries of the French, German and Finnish embassies to deal with Schengen visa requests, but the agreements covering such matters were suspended in September 2011 with Finland, and this month with France and Germany, because of extra Danish security and verification requirements that European Voice says are too burdensome for the other countries. On Thursday 19 January, the Commission said that France and Germany had decided to reduce the red tape surrounding visa requests for the other EU countries that they represent and have therefore stopped dealing with requests for Danish visas after Copenhagen demanded the right to scrutinise all the authorisation procedures used by the three countries in question, with which the three countries refused to comply. Denmark is the only country to impose such requirements, explain sources, but that is likely to change quite soon now that a new government is in power.
The Commission describes the situation as unfortunate and urges all four countries to settle the problem very fast, but rejects any idea of a more serious problem about Denmark's application of the Schengen rules like in May last year, when the former Danish government announced special customs controls along the Swedish and German borders - plans that it later abandoned. The Danish Presidency agrees that there is not a problem with the Schengen rules, commenting that it is nothing to do with politics or border controls, but simply a technical issue and the country is working to ensure the bilateral agreements are restored as soon as possible.
European Voice says that Denmark is represented by France in a dozen or so countries, including Cameroon, Armenia, Haiti and Qatar; by Germany in Central Asia, the Yemen and Libya, and by Finland in Peru, Tunisia and Namibia. (SP/ transl.fl)