Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-05-Speech-3-317"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2006-07-05"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Visa policy with regard to western Balkan countries (debate)2
dcterms:Language	"sv"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20060705.20.3-317"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2006-07-05-Speech-3-3182
lpv:speaker	lp:Henrik Lax2
lpv:spokenAs	member_of_the_bureau; ALDE (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3 member; LIBE (2004-07-21--2007-01-14)3 substitute; ENVI (2004-07-22--2007-01-14)3 substitute; Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3 substitute; Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners (2006-01-19--2007-02-14)3 unknown; Svenska folkpartiet (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (2004-09-15--2009-07-13)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, Mrs Lehtomäki, Mr Frattini, the fact that the western Balkan countries are being walled in by visa requirements is a tragedy for those countries, whose people have been able to travel freely in Western Europe for 20 years. For those of us still able to do so, it is almost impossible to understand what it means suddenly to be placed behind a border that cannot be crossed without a visa. It does not stop only people from getting about. In the same way, thoughts are prevented from crossing borders. In today’s knowledge-based economy, mobility is just as important a requirement as access to modern information technology. In today’s globalised world, visa policy cannot, therefore, take the same form as it did in the 1950s or even the 1980s. That must be our starting point when the EU formulates its visa policy. As Mrs Lehtomäki also said, the EU needs a clear plan for simplifying the visa procedure and for finally getting rid of the visa requirement. It must be made clear to the countries that are our neighbours what conditions they have to fulfil in order, firstly, to see visa procedures genuinely simplified and, secondly, to see the compulsory visa requirement one day done away with. We must be able to promise them that the visa requirement will be abolished when fewer than 2% of visa applications are rejected. I welcome Mr Frattini’s objectives, which are very constructive. One of the obvious goals of the EU’s bilateral visa agreement must, however, be to facilitate mobility for all, and not only for certain categories of people. We give out the wrong signal if we place people in different categories, such as students and cultural figures as distinct from farmers and parents of small children. The fact is that everyone must have the right to inhale the European atmosphere. It is a problem that, for example, the agreement with Russia is of such limited scope. It applies to only a small number of people – fewer than a tenth of people travelling – and does not in practice simplify the visa procedures. Not even the fee is to be reduced. On behalf of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, I should like to see a more ambitious visa policy, genuinely simplified procedures for the Balkan countries and, indeed, for everyone, and the clear objective of abolishing the compulsory visa requirement. It must be made quicker, cheaper and simpler to obtain a visa, and the European Parliament must be allowed to comment on the authority to negotiate that is now in the process of being produced."@en1

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