European Commission publishes annual third report on supension of visa regime with EU

Chisinau, 10 July /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova’s citizens will further benefit from liberalized visa regime with the Schengen Area member states. At the same time, the authorities continue to fulfill the conditions which stayed at the basis of the liberalized visa regime, according to the European Commission’s third report on the mechanism of suspension of the visa regime with the European Union, published today. The report contains a comprehensive assessment of the level of implementation of the reference criteria related to the free visa regime with EU for the countries of the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership, the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry’s press service has reported.     

As for Moldova, the European Commission presented a string of recommendations on improving the operational cooperation, in order to cut the number of applications on asylum, submitted in an unjustified way by Moldovan citizens in the Schengen Area, continuing the promotion of information campaigns on the rules of travel to the Schengen Area, continuing the consultations for the adoption of the strategy and action plan on the justice reform, strengthening of the institutional capacities and powers of the National Integrity Authority, further ensuring the comprehensive investigation of the bank fraud, recovery of the embezzled assets and calling the guilty people to account.   

The Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry took note of the evaluation and recommendations unveiled in the present Report, which show including the positive developments related to the implementation of the recommendations of the similar report from 2018. The European Commission’s recommendations will be analyzed and the concerned authorities are to undertake needed measures for their implementation.  

Note: during 2014-2020, more than 2 million Moldova’s citizens made travels to Schengen Area states, recording more than six million travels. According to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the number of refusals for entry is 0.3 per cent one average and the number of illegal stay cases is 0.5 per cent, on average. The possibility to travel without visas to EU is open for about 2.5 million owners of biometric passports, including for over 200,000 Moldovan citizens who live in the Transnistrian region.