SKOPJE, Macedonia – In line with MARRI priorities in the area of visa and consular cooperation and with the kind financial support of the Czech Government, the MARRI Regional Centre and the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (under the Montenegrin MARRI Presidency) organised a study visit/workshop “Best practices in management of visa systems,” held in Skopje on 23 June 2009.
Its objective was to assist MARRI Member States’ national institutions responsible for managing overall visa issuing process in their efforts to achieve Schengen standards and provide guidance and examples of establishing and maintaining a visa issuing system. Study visit/workshop was realised through two groups of activities: workshop in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia and study visit to the National Visa Centre in Macedonian MFA.
Foreign ministry officials responsible for visa and consular affairs from MARRI Member States – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia took part at the event. The MARRI Member States’ delegations presented current national visa processes relating to institutional capacities, legal framework and visa issuing procedures as well as technical, IT and document security capacities. In addition to them, consuls from EU member countries to Skopje also presented their experiences in the process of visa issuance in Macedonia. In general, the participants underlined the importance of all the components in visa system in order to develop a secure process of issuing visas and having an effective immigration control.
“The establishment of a modern and functional National Visa Center meeting Schengen standards was one of the reasons for Macedonia in the past couple of years to achieve one of the most crucial conditions towards cancellation of the visa regime for citizens. It allowed Macedonia, together with other countries in the region, to anticipate the final political decision of the European Commission on visa liberalisation in due time,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Milososki in his opening speech.
He noted that MARRI’s close cooperation with the ministries of the interior and justice and other institutions as well paved the way towards the ultimate goal. “I am delighted that this generation of Macedonian citizens will soon witness the decision on visa regime abolition. I believe the visa-free regime will enable further Europeanisation of the Macedonian society, which will be of utmost importance in the EU accession process and in obtaining date for start of EU membership talks,” said Milososki.
The Macedonian Foreign Minister pointed out that the visa liberalisation was made possible with the establishment of an integrated border management system, introduction of identification documents with biometric protection in compliance with the highest international standards for Macedonian citizens, implementation of judicial reforms, established mechanisms and concrete results in the fight against organised crime, illegal migration and human trafficking, harmonized visa and migration policy with the EU legislation and by enabling EU citizens to enter in Macedonia only with IDs as well as citizens from third countries with valid Schengen visa.
“For this achievement I am sure Macedonia will be positively evaluated in the European Commission report, due in October 2009,” Milososki stated. “It has been a well-known fact that Macedonia and its citizens observe the visa regime and have never presented an immigration or any other risk for EU states. I think it contributed to the final decision on visa-free regime,” FM Milososki said.
Director of MARRI’s Regional Centre, Trpe Stojanovski informed that the meeting was organised in Skopje upon a request from regional countries, because Macedonia’s visa center served as an example and could offer experiences and solutions.
MARRI Director Stojanovski said the workshop aimed at presenting the experiences from Macedonia to other countries in the region. “The workshop is attended also by European Commission representatives, which means that in an integrated manner we can continue exchanging experiences in the process of visa and consular activities and promoting the best practices as achievements made by other countries in the region,” stated Stojanovski before the start of the workshop. He stressed that the Skopje workshop reaffirmed the achievements of Macedonia in the process as well as the engagement of the MARRI Regional Centre. “The objective of the MARRI Regional Centre is to exchange regional experiences, to strengthen regional cooperation, to offer assistance and solutions and to be effective when it comes to crime prevention,” Stojanovski stated.
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