Belarus, EU move ahead in visa talks - Interior

The European Union has preliminary agreed to offer Belarus a transition period for the re-admission agreement, reports tut.by quoting Aliaksei Biahun, head of Citizenship and Migration Department at the Interior Ministry of Belarus.

This agreement removes one of the last two obstacles in the visa regime facilitation for Belarusians.

Belarus and EU are in talks on two agreements - on simplified visa procedures and on re-admission. The two documents have to be signed in a package. Until today's talks, EU had refused to agree to give Belarus a three-year transition period on the re-admission agreement that Minsk wanted just the way Moscow and Kyiv received it in 2000s.

According to Biahun, this transition period for Belarus will be 'slighly less' then three years requested by Belarus. The Interior official however declined to reveal any concrete figures. The document is planned to be initialled in autumn.

The talks with EU on simplified visa procedures are led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The key obstacle was the EU requirement about more serious guarantees for the protection of Belarus diplomatic passports. This problem is likely to be resolved when Belarus introduces biometric passports in 2019.

There is no news on the outcome of this part of the talks.

After the agreements are signed, the Schengen visa for Belarusians will cost 35 euros instead of today's price of 60 euros. The measure also envisages a shorter list of documents required to submit along with the visa application.