Brussels, 02/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - A mission by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee and the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, which expected to travel to Algeria on 15-17 October to obtain information on how European consulates worked in this country, as a preliminary to implementing a coordinated European visa granting system, has for the instant, been suspended at the request for clarification from the Algerian authorities. The delegation includes Henrix Lax (ALDE) rapporteur on the visa policy issue, Boguslaw Sonik (EPP-ED, Poland,) Giusto Catania (GUE-NGL, Italy) and Patrick Gaubert (EPP-ED, France). The latter obtained suspension of the mission from the Commission.
He “protests about the entry conditions into Algeria” and affirmed in a press release that the entry visas are not granted to passport holders that include any mention of “Israeli visas”. The MEP, who is also a member of the Europe-Israel parliamentary delegation, sent a letter to president Borrell in which he indicated that he had “officially protested against this fact” and asserted that he is “refusing to go” to Algeria. He is asking the “European Union and, the European Parliament, in particular, to clearly speak out against such discriminatory practices”.
Algerian sources have indicated that they find these affirmations astonishing because it had clearly been indicated by protocol services that there had been no demand of this nature at all. The Algerians believe that an explanation can be found either in the fact that a “disinformation object operation” is being carried out by the EP's protocol service or that this is purely media manipulation by the MEP who is appreciated in Israel, given the fact that no request for visas had been submitted to Algeria's diplomatic services.