The EU Council of Ministers authorized the European Commission to negotiate the Agreement on visa regime facilitation and the Agreement on readmission between the European Community and Moldova. The decision was made on Tuesday, December 19. According to a press release of the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the provisions of the mentioned agreements are to be settled with the European Commission starting January 2007. It is already known that the agreement on visa regime facilitation will stipulate a series of advantageous conditions for the procedures of visa issuance for Moldovan citizens, will establish a simplified procedure for obtaining multiple visas for relatively long terms and will allow free visa issuance for certain categories: businessmen, high school and university students, researchers, transporters and others. The Agreement on readmission, on the other hand, will provide for the obligation and the legal procedure for Moldovan and EU member countries’ authorities concerning the repatriation of the persons illegally staying on the territory of the signatories. The EU decision to initiate the negotiations on the respective treaties is complementary to the initiative of the European Commission to create the Common centre for visa issuance. The centre will be launched in the first half of 2007, as a pilot project initiated by Hungary, Austria and Slovenia, being opened for all EU member countries. The negotiations on the two agreements are to be launched in January, so that they could be enacted as of January 1, 2008.