Brussels, 29/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Thursday that six EU member states will shortly open a single centre, where visas for each of these countries will be issued, in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. “It will be the first common visa application centre dedicated to the EU in the world,” said the spokesman for Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini. The official opening of the centre, which will deliver visas for Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Estonia, Latvia and Denmark, is planned for 25 April. Mr Frattini will attend this opening. It was not the Romanian, but the Hungarian, embassy which was selected as the home for this single centre. “Even though Moldovans are not part of the Union, we hope that this centre will make it easier for them to travel to the EU - especially for students, researchers and diplomats,” the spokesman added. He hoped, too, that negotiations on visa facilitation between the European Commission and Moldova would be completed before the centre opened. At the end of December, the Council of the EU authorised the Commission to negotiate visa facilitation and re-admission agreements with Moldova (see EUROPE 9331). The spokesman denied, however, that the opening of such a centre could cause tension between Bucharest and Chisinau. Moldovan authorities have accused Romania of seeking to endanger the national security and principles of the Moldovan state by issuing Romanian citizenship right, left and centre to Moldovans. “The decision to open this centre was taken a long time ago. We will have to wait and see the effect it has on this internal issues,” he said, indicating that the EU would not interfere in the purely internal affairs of these countries. (bc)