News - Peter Stano: Armenia must fulfill several tasks for EU visa liberalization

In an interview with Armenpress, Peter Stano, Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Commission of the European Union (EU), talked about starting the EU visa liberalization process with Armenia. According to Stano, the EU is going to study visa liberalization options with Armenia, and this means that a process will begin to explore the possibility of visa liberalization for the country. At the same time, the chief spokesman for EU foreign relations noted that for the success of this process, Armenia also must fulfill a number of tasks, and most importantly, get the consent of all EU member states. "So, we are launching a process. This is the start of the process, but it is a process that eventually, if everything goes well, might bring a lot of benefits for the Armenian citizens," said the European official. He noted that one of the requirements for EU visa liberalization concerns having biometric passports. "But also political requirements to make sure that the political framework in the country prevents people from misusing the asylum system. First of all, that people are not forced to leave the country and claim asylum. Because this is one of the main priorities when it comes to visa. Free visa regimes that we don't want to have sudden increase of asylum seekers and in order to prevent the misuse of the, let's say, visa free or liberalized travel regime. So political criteria and technical logistical criteria on the side of the applicant and then of course the Member States need to be convinced, need to be assured that everything has been done on the side of the partner country that the visa liberalization in this case will not be misused," Stano noted.