Vaclav Havel calls upon Europe to lower cost of visas for Belarusians

A former Czech president Vaclav Havel and a number of other Czech politicians offer to reduce costs of Schengen visas for belqarusian citizens. The document “How to prevent building an iron curtain between the EU and Belarus?” gives three variants of visa policy towards Belarus.

The first one, which is being realized now, is to raise visa costs to 60 Euro and announce that its reduction is impossible until Belarus becomes a democratic country.

The second variant is to start talks on visa problem with the Belarusian regime. However, according to the authors of the address, such talks would legitimize the Belarusian regime, which is moreover not interested in Belarusian citizens’ visits to the EU.

And finally the third variant which the authors of the address find the best is to make the cost of Schengen visa 35 Euros for all Belarusian citizens, no matter what relations with the regime are. This is the cost of a Schengen visa for citizens of Russia and Ukraine.

The Czech politicians are convinced that the EU must take high priority measures to streamline and liberalize the procedure of receiving visas by Belarusian citizens. “Only such actions could help to realize the main objective of the EU policy towards Belarus, which is to simplify and build up contacts between citizens and democratize the country,” the document reads.