Brussels, 04/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and Georgia officially launched their discussions on Monday 4 June on a visa liberalisation scheme for the former Soviet republic, for which a visa facilitation scheme, allowing certain categories of people to be exempted from the need for visas, has been in place since March 2011. The dialogue, on exempting the whole of the Georgian population from the need to obtain a visa for travel to the EU for a period of three months maximum, was launched in Brussels by Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze. The visa liberalisation dialogue will address areas directly related to document security, border management, migration, mobility and asylum, as well as other issues such as tackling corruption and organised crime, protecting human rights, minorities, and anti-discrimination.
The process began in 2008 with talks on a visa facilitation regime and parallel negotiation of an agreement on the readmission by Georgia of illegal immigrants, both of which came into effect at the start of March 2011, the Commission says in a press release. Since 2006, the EU has concluded visa facilitation agreements with Ukraine, Albania, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. Visa liberalisation schemes were put in place with Serbia and Montenegro in 2009, and with Albania and Bosnia in 2010. Russia also enjoys visa facilitation and has opened discussions on a liberalisation regime, though these are having difficulty in making headway. At the EU-Russia summit in Saint Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for swifter progress to be made in putting this regime in place. The EU, while acknowledging the efforts made by Russia, still feels that all the necessary conditions for the liberalisation regime have not yet been met. (SP/transl.rt)