Belarus looks at retaliation measures against expensive Schengen visas

“Belarus is considering a possibility of retaliation, including an increase in the Belarus visa costs up to Euro 60. My comments, being discussed now in the internet, sounded differently”, says Igar Syakret, the head of the visa section at the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s consular department.
“The Belarusian side does not guarantee that foreigners will be issued cheaper visas than the ones of Schengen. But I want to note that we have already held two rounds of negotiations with Poland and Lithuania. A draft agreement is now under study to facilitate the travel of Belarusians and foreigners across the border”.

Belarus has proposed to its neighbors the visa procedure preferences for some categories of citizens.

“They are pensioners, international drivers, railway personnel and those who have to travel abroad on duty,” Syakret said.

Possibly, Belarus will retaliate by abolishing the simplified visa issue procedure. Presently, foreigners are able to obtain a Belarusian visa on arrival at the Minsk airport.

“We will either change this procedure or have the speed of visa issuing compensated with money”, Syakret said.

The Belarus Embassy in Lithuania told the European Radio for Belarus that the sides were in talks to agree over the Lithuanian national visas to be cheaper than the Schengen visa.

Anatol Zhautouski, the spokesman for the Belarus Embassy in Vilnius, said the issue would be resolved by early December.

“It will be Schengen, but there will be travel restrictions in the zone’s other countries. There should be no problem with controls. It is still early to talk about the tariffs before a bilateral agreement is signed. It will be known in early December”, Zhautouski told the European Radio for Belarus.

According to the embassy’s spokesman, regardless of the Schengen visa costs, the Belarusian visa will hardly be Euro 60 for the citizens of the European Union.

“It is not known yet what Belarus is going to respond with. But it is unlikely that the Belarusian visa costs of Euro 60 will be introduced," Zhautouski said.