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Georgia hopeful to get visa-free regime

22 May 2015 13:27 (UTC+04:00)
Georgia hopeful to get visa-free regime

By Aynur Karimova

A political decision to grant Georgia visa-free regime in the Schengen area is already in place. Georgia’s Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili hopes Georgia will get it in 2016 after technical procedures are completed before late this year.

“Everyone acknowledges that Georgia has made significant progress. In just six months we have made a huge progress and took a great leap forward. Taking in view this progress, everyone agrees that Georgia deserves to have visa-free travel rules with the EU,” he told journalists upon his arrival at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga on May 21.

Garibashvili noted that a political decision had already been made; only technical procedures remain, which should be completed before the end of the year.

"Therefore I hope that our citizens will be able to travel without visas [to the Schengen area] very soon," he said. "We expect to get visa-free regime maybe next year. We stay committed and we continue our reforms."

The Riga summit of Eastern Partnership is being held on May 21-22 and by the end of the summit the EU will make a decision whether to grant Georgian citizens visa free travel to the Schengen area or not.

Germany and France are the only skeptical countries about Georgia’s visa liberalization ambitions, while Latvia is optimistic about Georgia's visa free future, as President Andris Berzins has expressed his support to Georgia’s European integration at a meeting with Garibashvili

Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma believes that despite continuous discussions over the final text of the declaration, "good news" for Georgia is that "the declaration would state that if the European Commission’s report on Georgia's implementation of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) showed the country had met all the criteria, the country would be offered visa free travel next year."

One day before the Riga Summit, European Council President Donald Tusk sent a clear message in his interview with Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty when he noted that Georgia will not receive a visa free travel regime with the EU at this summit.

He said "both Ukrainian and Georgian citizens would enjoy visa free travel to the EU's passport free Schengen zone as early as next year."

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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