On October 9, the eighth meeting of the RA-EU Joint Committee on Visa Facilitation took place in Brussels, co-chaired by Artur Petrosyan, Head of the Consular Department of the RA MFA, and Antoine Savary, Deputy Head of the Visa Policy Division of the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission.
The Co-Chairs of the Committee made opening remarks at the start of the meeting, after which the minutes of the previous seventh meeting of the Committee were adopted. The process of implementing the Agreement “On the Facilitation of the Issuance of Visas between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union” was discussed. In particular, statistics on Schengen visa issuance, as well as other issues arising from the implementation of the Agreement, were addressed.
The Armenian side raised issues related to the implementation of the conditions set out in the Agreement, emphasizing in particular the limited availability of appointments, the short validity periods of the issued visas, the need for uniform application of the rules, the required documents, and the fees set out in the Agreement. The parties discussed possible options for addressing the issues raised.
The positive indicators of cooperation in the readmission issue and the progress made by Armenia were also discussed.
The RA-EU visa liberalization process was also discussed during the session. The Armenian side emphasized its commitment to implementing the reforms stemming from the RA-EU visa liberalization action plan.
