(1999/C 135/098) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2634/98 by Otto Von

(1 September 1998)

Subject: Visa requirements for Bulgaria and Romania − expert reports

Several commissions of experts have recently visited Bulgaria and Romania to consider the visa problem there. No reports have yet been published on these visits. If such expert reports already exist, when will the Council be submitting them to Parliament? What conclusions has the Council reached in this matter? If a report or reports of this kind have not yet been drawn up, when will they be compiled?

(16 November 1998)

Since it is not associated with the expert commissions mentioned by the Honourable Members, the Council has no knowledge of the existence or otherwise of any reports drawn up by such commissions.

(1999/C 135/099) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2636/98 by Hiltrud Breyer (V), Otto von Habsburg (PPE), Charles Goerens (ELDR), Klaus-Heiner Lehne (PPE), Claudia Roth (V), Wilmya Zimmermann (PSE) and Karl Habsburg-Lothringen (PPE) to the Council

(1 September 1998)

Subject: Visa requirement for Bulgaria and Romania

1. How, in the Council’s opinion, can the strategy for bringing Bulgaria and Romania closer to the European Union be reconciled with the visa requirement for their nationals, seeing that two EU institutions, the European Parliament and the Commission, have argued for the removal of these countries from the common list compiled pursuant to Article 100c of the Treaty establishing the European Community and that the European Parliament will shortly be reaffirming this position?

2. What are the Council’s reason for refusing to withdraw the visa requirement in respect of these countries?

3. Is the Council aware of the sometimes unreasonable conditions under which visas are issued to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals for entry into a Member Sate of the EU? Does the Council intend to ease the requirements and conditions for the issue of such visas and to abolish them in the foreseeable future?

4. Does the Council regard the proportion of Roma people in the two countries as an obstacle to the removal of the latter from the common list? If so, why?

(7/8 December 1998)

Currently there is no Commission proposal before the Council to remove Bulgaria and Romania from the list of third countries whose nationals must be in possession of a visa when crossing the external frontiers of the Member States.

The Council is not aware of the difficulties mentioned by the Honourable Members concerning the granting of visas. Currently, the requirements and conditions laid down for granting visas are not harmonised at Community level.