13/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - During his meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino raised the issue of extending the visa exemption programme for short term stays in the United States to all Member States. For now, Slovenia and fourteen of the fifteen former Member States (except Greece) benefit from this. The European Commission is now regularly bringing this matter up, not really for an immediate decision, but rather in the hope that the new Member States will have a right to visa exemption once they enter the Schengen Area, perhaps end 2006.