MAE – disappointed that talks on lifting visas for Canada have failed

The Romanian authorities continue to attach significant importance to the goal of having visa requirements dropped for Romanian citizens travelling abroad, a Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) release informs.

“We are disappointed to see that in spite of Romania’s cooperation availability and its similar situation to that of the other states in its region – also seen in the clear progress towards meeting the criteria envisaged by the Canadian side – and in spite of Canada’s decision to include Romania on the list of safe countries of origin, the dialog on the topic of visas that began 24 months ago between the European Union and Canada has not yielded a result.

Starting at the EU-Canada summit in 2008, and continuing at the 2014 EU-Canada summit, Canada committed to relax its visa regime for Romanian citizens so as to provide unrestricted movement to all European citizens soonest, without any discrimination. In the wider context of the shared goal of signing and ratifying the Strategic Partnership Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) Romania feels that maintaining the Canadian visa regime for Romanian citizens puts them at an evident, unjustified disadvantage to the other European citizens. The current situation bars Romanian citizens from newly-created economic and trade opportunities.

In this situation the Romanian authorities will reassess, at EU level, the approach to the relationship between the EU and Canada so as to secure the goal of having obligatory visas for Romanian citizens eliminated.

The Romanian authorities are in constant consultations with the European Commission and the members of the European Parliament who are involved in this dossier, and is constantly appraising them of developments in this situation,” the release concludes.