Moldovan citizens to benefit of a simplified visa regime with Romania

Moldovan citizens will benefit of a simplified visa regime with Romania, after this country will become a member of the European Union (EU). These stipulations are included in the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and Romania regarding the mutual traveling of the citizens. The draft decision was approved on Wednesday, June 14 by the Cabinet Council. According to the minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Andrei Stratan, the procedure of visa remittance for Romania will be simplified. According to this agreement, the visas will be remitted free of charge and invitations will not be needed anymore. As well, expanding the categories of citizens who will be able to obtain long-term visa is included, as well as reducing the examination term from 5 days to 2-5 days. In case of emergency, the remittance term is reduced from 2 days to 24 hours. At the same time, the visa agreement stipulates applying the whole set facilities allowed by the EU aquis used by the member states, among which visa acquitting for the owners of diplomatic and work passports, visas available for 5 years for businessmen etc. Stratan mentioned that such agreements were signed previously with Poland and Latvia and came into force starting May 1, 2006. The minister expressed his hope that Moldova will obtain the same conditions as the EU candidate and Eastern-European states did. According to him, the talks already started. On June 7, 2006, in the first joint meeting of the MFAEI of the Republic of Moldova and European Commission representatives took place Brussels, within which the issue on visa regime for Moldova was discussed. These discussions will continue during June 20-21, within the visit of the president Vladimir Voronin in Brussels. Andrei Stratan specified that this project will be implemented before Romania will join EU, after its discussion with the Romanian side. At the Moldovan-Romanian negotiations on visa issue, which took place in April, 2006 in Bucharest, Romania accepted the majority of proposals presented by the Moldovan officials. Due to the specifics of the international juridical instrument, applying the Agreement does not involve financial expenses or negative effects for the economy of the Republic of Moldova.