Lithuania promises to launch initiative on free visas for Belarusians

On Thursday Lithuania's Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis informed that Lithuania again promises to show initiative to offer Belarusian citizens Lithuanian national visas free of fees, or at a token price.

He stated that this week Lithuania offered Belarusian officials to hold talks on this issue, he underlined. Due to the procedure prescribed by the law, Lithuania cannot take such quick decisions as Poland unilaterally, Delfi reports.

“During the meeting with a representative of the Belarusian Embassy our officials offered to waive fees for national visas on a bilateral basis,” the Minister said to BNS on Thursday.

He even stated that he is going to initiate an amendment to the law, so that in the future the head of the Foreign Ministry would be able to adopt decisions easier, which would make it possible to respond to existing situations more flexibly.

The minister stated that the political awareness of Belarusian citizens has grown, that is why Lithuania can help to promote its further growth it by opening a door to Europe to Belarusians.

In this case the matter concerns a possibility to issue long-term national visas, also called category D visas, without fees. Such visas are issued in a case when a person wants to stay in the country for more than 3 months within half a year period. This visa allowed staying in other Schengen states for a certain period as well. At the moment this visa costs 60 Euro.