Civil activists wish to cancel EU visas

Political scientist Dzyanis Melyantsou, chief expert of the campaign “To Belarus and Europe – without a visa” has told it to Euroradio on air.

According to him, the sense of the campaign is to achieve a complete cancellation of Schengen visas for Belarusians.

Melyantsou: "Why now? The European Union has been demonstrating that the visa issue, the travel facilitation, should not be connected with the political dialogue with the official Minsk or demands for some internal changes in Belarus. It is already a valuable step. If the European Union facilitates travel, cancels and decreases visa fees, it will promote pro-European ideas”.

Melyantsou notes that the Council of the European Union has allowed the European Commission to conduct travel facilitation negotiations with Belarus recently. The current anti-visa campaign is the civil response to the European Union’s desire. It proves that Belarusians are ready for such a step.
However, is it possible to conduct such a campaign without the authorities’ support? The European Union has already claimed that it is ready for visa facilitation but it expects the Belarusian authorities to make some steps.

Melyantsou: "The campaign can be conducted without the authorities’ support – it is civil. It is aimed at demonstrating the fact that Belarusians would like to cancel visas. The campaign will also be directed at the Belarusian government to promote the government’s actions in this direction. Naturally, it is impossible to simplify the visa procedure or to cancel or reduce visa fees without the Belarusian government’s participation”.

According to the expert, it is too early to discuss the campaign’s steps – they only had their first working meeting last week. However, Melyantsou says that the campaign will consist of two parts – lobbying in the EU and lobbying in Belarus. The initiators of the campaign have promised to publish its schedule in a month.