At the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit of November 29, 2013, Moldova will enter a new stage of relations with the European Union. What will it bring and how will it influence the life of the Moldovans from the country and from abroad? What will each of us gain and what should we do for this benefit to become possible? How will the new conditions affect Moldova’s relations with other countries? The IPN Agency aims to look for answers to these and other questions worrying society, together with you, within the series of articles “Association with the EU to everyone’s understanding”.
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The liberalization by the EU of the visa regime for Moldovans will ensure greater mobility of the young people. They will be tempted to take part in European programs, to travel and to interact with Europeans everywhere. When the young people are more interested, the European mobility programs will increase in number and this will lead to facilitated exchange of values, intercultural dialogue, transfer of ideas and integration of the young people into the cultural and values area of the EU. There will be also young people for whom the visa-free trips will facilitate communication with the parents and relatives working in states of the Schengen area, said Denis Cenusa, expert in European studies and author of a study of the impact of the visa regime liberalization on the young people’s mobility.
Even if the liberalized regime is not extended to cover academic mobility or internships in the EU and the young people will have to apply for national visas, it will be easier for them to travel to an EU member state in order to give an interview for an internship or to apply to a university. Denis Cenusa considers that the liberalization of the visa regime will have a positive impact especially on the young people as statistics show that most of the applicants for Schengen visas are young persons. After this bureaucratic obstacle is removed, more young people will want to travel and interact.
According to Denis Cenusa, the young people’s contribution to prompting the European course is very important as they can contribute to the multiplication of information about the particularities of the process, its benefits and the obligations of the people, who must obey the European laws and values. The liberalization of the visa regime should no way be perceived as the opening of the labor market by the EU. The young people should be aware that the abolition of the Schengen visas does not exclude the necessity of presenting documents justifying the trip when entering the EU.
For the Moldovans to be able to travel without visas to the EU, Moldova had to carry out a plan of action. A final assessment report by the European Commission is awaited before the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit of this November. After the European Commission establishes that all the conditions were fulfilled, it can recommend the member states to initiate the procedure for instituting a visa-free regime for Moldovans holding biometric passports. The abolition of the visa regime will enable the Moldovans to travel freely in the EU for a period of 90 days within six months (180 days), based on a valid biometric passport.
The visa-free trips will be possible for participation in European programs, activities or seminars, for tourism, business or other purposes related to contacts between people.
Elena Bolshenko, IPN
