Fri, Feb 10 2012
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: A queue at Latvia's Terehova border point with Russia 250km east of the capital Riga, August 2007. Latvia joined the EU Schengen border patrol agreement on January 1 2008.
Citizens of the three Western Balkans countries with biometric passports will be able to travel to the Schengen countries visa-free, according to a proposal approved by the European Commission on July 15 2009.
Third-country nationals will benefit from more consistent and transparent application procedures, European Council says after approving new rules for Schengen visas on June 25 2009.
Presidents of Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo meeting to discuss regional co-operation and European prospects of Western Balkans countries.
Western Balkans countries that meet criteria should be Schengen visa-exempt, EU ministers say; European Commission vows legislation before summer break
Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann, during a meeting with the head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels has addressed the issue of combating and tacking crime in the schengen zone, due to an escallating crime wave in the country
Biometric passports are on hold again; after Mikov signed a deal with Germany's Siemens, the supreme court put the deal on ice.
Just two days after Bulgaria and Romania expressed optimism about their preparations to join Europe's Schengen visa zone, it emerged that Schengen's planned new security database is so far behind schedule that it may not be technically possible to admit the new entrants.
Children younger than 12 should no longer have their fingerprints included on passports issued in the European Union, the European Parliament decided on January 14 2009, the EP website said. A co-decision report adopted by the EP with 594 votes in favour, 51 against and 37 abstentions, said that children should have their own passports so as to combat trafficking in children.
Bulgaria has met a European Commission deadline for information on its preparations to join the Schengen visa area, while a series of inspections will take place in the first half of 2009.
Seven months after the Interior Ministry initiated public procurement procedure for selecting a company to produce Bulgarian biometric identification documents came to a halt, the ministry announced that new procedure will be under way in the spring of 2009, Dnevnik daily reported. The implementation of biometric passports was due on January 1 2007 with the country's accession to the European Union. The implementation of the biometric passports is one of the crucial conditions for the abolition of the US visa requirements.
Bulgaria would be ready to introduce its much-delayed biometric passports in 10 months, Interior Minister Michail Mikov was quoted as saying by Bulgarian daily Sega on June 29. Mikov made his statements in reply to questions during a work-visit to France, Sega said. A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told The Sofia Echo on June 30 that she could not comment on Mikov's statement and no further details were available.
Foreign ministries criticise website that calls on visitors to lodge complaints against immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
‘I am delighted we managed to identify and attract some of the brightest and best people from Bulgaria and Romania to come and work at the European Commission,’ EC Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said.
The current ‘negative Arctic Oscillation’ – a weather phenomenon which leads to cold conditions in Europe and relatively warmer conditions in the Arctic – should shift into a more neutral pattern within the next two to three weeks.
The extreme cold has been blamed for almost 400 deaths across Europe. In Ukraine, where temperatures have fallen below minus 30 degrees Celsius, the cold is blamed for at least 122 deaths. Many of the victims were homeless.
At the end of Q3 2011, the highest government debt to GDP ratio was in Greece, at 159.1 per cent.
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