Brussels, 05/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 31 October, Canada announced that nationals of the Czech Republic and Latvia no longer need to obtain a visa in order to travel to Canada as visitors. The measure entered into force with immediate effect. “This is an additional step towards the completion of a visa-free regime for all citizens of the EU visiting Canada”, said the European commissioner for justice, security and freedom, Franco Frattini, who went on to say that he hoped to continue to work closely with the Canadian authorities to ensure that these obligations are lifted for all member states whose citizens are still required to obtain them. There are now just six member states which are still subject to this obligation: Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania. The Canadian minister for immigration has announced that he is looking into the question of lifting the visa obligation on these countries on a case-by-case basis, the ultimate objective being to ensure that all nationals of the member states of the EU are able to travel without a visa. Within the framework of this examination, Canadian civil servants will carry out technical visits to the capitals in question. In mid-September, the Commission sent Canada a letter of formal notice, calling upon the country to make rapid progress towards lifting the visa obligation still in place for the nationals of eight member states of the EU (EUROPE 9503). (B.C.)