Question on Schengen visa prices isn’t yet settled

The discussing of the project on the decrease of the Schengen visa prices for Belarusians in the Bundestag’s committees was delayed till 14 November.

As BelaPAN has learnt from the office of the Green Party member Mariluisa Beck, 7 November the proposals to reduce visa prices for certain social groups of Belarusians was studied at the committee for foreign relations. The proposal was initiated by Alliance '90/The Greens (Bündnis '90/Die Grünen) together with the Free Democratic Party and fraction of the governing coalition - the Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union and Social Democratic Party of Germany.

The sides failed to find a common formulation and the discussion of the proposals was postponed for the next week.

We remind that the German MPs are going to propose the German government to grant free visas for the Belarusians under 26 and for those who come to Germany on the programmes of cultural and scientific exchange. Moreover it is suggested to reduce visa prices from 60 to 35 euro for the Belarusians with low incomes.

The sides have different views on the problems. The coalition of the governing parties proposed to pay special attention to the youth under 26 years old when granting free visas and allow German consul to take a final decision. Meanwhile the Greens with the Free Democratic Party insist that Belarusians under 26 should be released of consul charges for visas.

According to the Schengen Agreement, all members of the agreement have common rules of collecting charges. But Germany can unilaterally reduce visa prices in special cases.