{"id":23151,"date":"2014-05-28T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=23151"},"modified":"2016-11-16T04:36:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T02:36:50","slug":"the-impact-of-the-visa-free-regime-on-moldovan-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2014\/05\/28\/the-impact-of-the-visa-free-regime-on-moldovan-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"The impact of the visa-free regime on Moldovan citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"

After six years of a Visa Facilitation Agreement (meaning a lower visa fee and simplification of visa procedures) between the EU and Moldova, on the 3rd<\/sup> of April the Council of the European Union granted Moldova with a visa-free travel regime. After the visa liberalisation dialogue that started in 2010 and encouraged Moldova to successfully implement many reforms like strengthening the rule of law, Moldovan citizens didn\u2019t need to apply for a visa anymore when travelling to the EU from the 28th<\/sup> of April onwards. The AEGEEan spoke to a member from AEGEE-<\/em>Chi\u0219in\u0103u<\/em>, Aliona Ciorba, about her reaction and the future of Moldova in her eyes. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Although the visa-free regime is great news, it doesn\u2019t mean that Moldovans can travel as freely as European citizens are able to right now. \u201cIt means that we can travel to thirty states in Europe for a short-term stays up to 90 days in six months\u201d, Aliona says. \u201cIn addition, on entering the EU, Moldovan citizens have to presents the same documents as they did when applying for a visa at embassies (trip tickets, hotel reservation or invitation of the person you are staying at, medical insurance and a proof of holding sufficient financial means).\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the reactions of Aliona and other Moldovans were positive. \u201cFor me, as an AEGEEan, the liberalisation of the visa regime has a direct impact\u201d, Aliona says. \u201cI don\u2019t have to worry about planning my trip anymore, so I can participate in events without any barriers. The members of my antenna can participate in mandatory events like the NWM, EPM and Agora too, so the criteria can be fulfilled and our antenna is saved.\u201d Before the new rule, planning a trip could easily take some months, because appointments at the embassy sometimes couldn\u2019t be planned earlier than a month ahead. Since the liberalisation of the visas, this part can be skipped and trips can be planned on a shorter notice. A chance happily accepted, because on the first day of the visa-elimination, 1683 Moldavian citizens travelled to EU countries.<\/p>\n

Although the possibility to travel for free is great, Aliona does point out that many Moldovans still won\u2019t have the money to travel to the EU. According to the public opinion poll, conducted in April 2014 by the Public Policy Institute of Moldova, 83% of the Moldovans didn\u2019t travel to EU countries in the last five years and 54% didn\u2019t believe that the visa-free regime would benefit them, because they didn\u2019t plan to travel (34%) or didn\u2019t have the financial resources for a travel (20%). Although the visa-free regime itself is a great step for Moldova, there is still a lot that can be done to improve the situation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Right now, the opinions about how to better the Moldovan situation, are divided into two groups: the Romanian speaking Moldovans who want Moldova to take further steps and become a part of the EU, and the Russian speaking people who would be very happy if Moldova was reoriented towards Russia and became a part of it. Seeing the situation in Ukraine, many Moldovan citizens are also worried about the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the possibility that it will extend to Moldova as well. It\u2019s expected that the same scenario as happened in Crimea will take place in Transnistria too, but this isn\u2019t something that most Moldavians would want to happen. \u201cWe believe in a bright future and the possibility to solve the conflict peacefully\u201d, Aliona says.<\/p>\n

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After six years of a Visa Facilitation Agreement (meaning a lower visa fee and simplification of visa procedures) between the EU and Moldova, on the 3rd of April the Council of the European Union granted Moldova with a visa-free travel regime. After the visa liberalisation dialogue that started in 2010 and encouraged Moldova to successfully implement many reforms like strengthening… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":23152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[8],"tags":[623,566,1353,1354],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23151"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37889,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23151\/revisions\/37889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}