Brussels, 07/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - Making the most out of the existing rules governing the issuing of short-stay visas in the Schengen area to make it easier for wealthy Chinese or Russian tourists to visit and to encourage them to spend their money in the EU is the issue tackled by the Commissioners for tourism and internal affairs, respectively Antonio Tajani and Cecilia Malmström, in a communication adopted by the European Commission on Wednesday 7 November.
Not going as far as to announce a revision of the visa code in force since 2010, providing a framework for the conditions for tourist visas to be granted to third-country nationals, the two Commissioners propose a better application of certain provisions of the code, for example by encouraging the consulates of the member states to speed up procedures, in respect of the 15-day period for allocating an appointment and the decision on whether or not to issue the visa, the Commission explains. Consulates could also make sure that they have visa request forms available in the languages of the host country and look into the possibility of granting multiple-entry visas.
In 2013, report on the implementation by the member states of the 2010 visa code will be published by the Commission and may be used as a basis for potential future amendments, the Commission continues. This report will make it possible to take measures to improve the rules where possible, such as shortening procedures, clarifying the definition of the consulate competent to deal with applications, simplifying forms or improving consular organisation and cooperation.
Commissioner for Industry Antonio Tajani says that by making it easier to issue visas, we could increase tourist presence in the EU from 5% to 25%. With an intelligent and respectful application of the rules, we can increase the presence of tourists in Europe. For the first time, we are working on the visa policy not just from the point of view of security. We want to send out a strong image of the EU to tourists arriving from China, Russia and South America, for whom visas are obligatory, he said at a press conference.
The two Commissioners feel that this better application of the visa code rules could directly feed into European growth by giving the tourism sector a shot in the arm. The Commission states that with a total of 18.8 million jobs in 2011, tourism has become one of the biggest generators of employment in the European Union and a key driver for economic growth and development. In 2011, expenditure by foreign visitors stood at €330.44 billion and according to recent estimates, is likely to reach €427.31 billion in 2022, supporting 20.4 million jobs.
With the Commission proposing at the same time to restrict the “visa-free” regime granted to the Balkan countries such as Serbia and Macedonia (FYROM) under certain circumstances, the Italian Commissioner also stated that the EU was not taking any risks with the tourists targeted in this case. Tajani believes that the Russia of today is not the Soviet Union of yesterday, the China of today is not the China of the days of the Vietnam War. There is no danger from the presence of Russian and Chinese tourists. I firmly believe that we must increase the presence of Russian and Chinese tourists, it's a question of business. (SP/EH/transl.fl)