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On July 17, the European Council approved the proposal of the European Commission to start visa liberalization talks with Armenia. This kicks start to a much longer process of localization of standards under the Visa Liberalization Action Plan developed by the European Commission.
What does visa liberalization mean?
Currently, 61 non-EU countries enjoy a visa-free regime with the European Union. These countries include Albania, Serbia, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Brazil, etc. Under this regime, non-EU nationals can enter the Schengen area for a temporary stay without the need for a visa. This regime follows a principle of reciprocity. That is, the visa-free regime also applies to EU citizens traveling to countries outside the EU.
The visa-free regime with the EU also means that a non-EU citizen can stay in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in each 180 day period. And absence from the Schengen Area for 90 consecutive days allows you to stay in the Schengen Area for another 90 days without a visa.
Achieving a visa-free regime with the European Union requires years of homework for non-EU countries. But the timeline is different for different countries.
Negotiations on the Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) document are being conducted by the Department for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission. The action plan includes four sections of criteria that the country must meet. Those four sections include document security, irregular migration, public order and security, foreign affairs and fundamental rights.
The document security section includes questions related to the security systems of citizens’ personal data, any other type of documents, electronic passports, the required mechanisms for their use, etc.
The irregular migration section covers border management, migration management and asylum policy-related issues. The section on public order and security discusses the issues of organized crime, prevention of terrorism and corruption, cooperation within the framework of criminal cases, cooperation of law enforcement agencies and compliance with data protection standards. And the foreign affairs and fundamental rights section includes issues of the right to freedom of movement within the country, conditions and procedures for issuing identity documents, protection of citizens’ rights, including those of minorities.
To implement the Visa Liberalization Action Plan, the European Commission monitors the country’s progress through regular reports. The European Commission informs the European Parliament and the European Council about all the actions and measures taken by the country for the implementation of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan. The assessment of the steps taken is carried out by the European Commission, as a result of joint work with the European External Action Service and the EU Delegation in the given country.
The reports also include all the next steps that the country needs to take to meet all four criteria under the Visa Liberalization Action Plan.
The example of Georgia
The European Union started visa liberalization talks with Georgia on June 4, 2012. The Visa Liberalization Action Plan was presented to Georgia on February 25, 2013. About a month later, on March 20, Georgia had already presented the actions taken to implement the Visa Liberalization Action Plan, and the further steps. The first report for the action plan was presented by the European Commission in November of the same year. Before 2015, 4 similar reports were submitted to the European Parliament and the European Council.
The final progress report was submitted in December 2015. On March 9, 2016, the European Commission proposed to liberalize the EU-Georgia visa regime. And only on March 28, 2017, the decision to liberalize the visa regime with Georgia came into force.
Thus, the visa liberalization regime between Georgia and the European Union was approved five years after the official start of negotiations. After the adoption of the law on foreign agents in Georgia on March 14, 2024, there was information in the media that the visa liberalization regime would be canceled. However, in June, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, Pavel Herchinsky, stated that the probability of canceling the visa-free regime between the European Union and Georgia is low.
The example of Moldova
Negotiations with the Republic of Moldova for the visa liberalization regime began earlier, on June 15, 2010. Already on January 24 of the following year, the EU presented the Visa Liberalization Action Plan. On February 17 of the same year, the Moldovan authorities presented the first steps taken to implement the action plan. The European Commission presented the first progress report on the implementation of the action plan on May 23, 2011. By November 2013, Moldova had submitted five progress reports, with the final report submitted on November 15, 2013. Thus, Moldova submitted more reports than Georgia in a shorter period of time.
The European Commission presented the proposal for visa liberalization with Moldova on November 27, 2013, again earlier than in the case of Georgia. The decision on a visa-free regime between the EU and Moldova entered into force on April 28, 2014.
Thus, it took 4-5 years for Moldova and Georgia to have a visa-free regime with the European Union, while in the case of Ukraine it took almost twice as long – 9 years. The fact that negotiations on this issue will probably officially be launched with the Republic of Armenia in the near future does not mean that Armenia will have a visa-free regime with the EU in the near future.
Alyona Hayrapetyan
