Very often the average Armenian citizens are feeling pretty confused about the statements of the RA government regarding the rapprochement of relations with Europe. In a certain meaning this has objective reasons because people judge from these relations only when they feel this on their own “skins.” Often the RA citizens communicate with the European relations when they are attempting to receive entry visas from the EU embassies. Mildly said, it is a complicated process for the Armenian citizens to receive an EU entry visa or in other words the Schengen visa. The Armenian citizens get to submit dozens of papers and documents to the embassies of the EU states, which doesn’t warrant that they will end up receiving the visa. Thus, often the barriers of physically accessing Europe create certain feeling of isolation among people. And it’s no accident that during the recent years in the framework of the “New neighborhood” and “Eastern Partnership” programs they are focusing a lot of attention to this as well. The process, which is included in the New Neighborhood program is called “facilitation of the travel of people.” This implies exchange of information on visas between the EU states and Armenia, cooperation in the context of improvement of the travel documents and visa securities, conformation to international standards and migration issues. In other words within the framework of this process it is anticipated to facilitate the visa regulations. This may imply partial or full facilitation of visa provision for certain groups as an example. This also includes simplification of receiving visas (e.g. getting applications via E-mail), reducing the financial burden (e.g. students and participants of EU programs) and other activities. Moreover, each of the countries of the Eastern Partnership Program (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus) may have different advantages/conditions for the visa regime defined for various terms or dates. In this regard the EU will be working with separate road maps with the members of the program. These maps are still in the stage of discussion. In this aspect the most significant step was the statement of the Committee of Foreign Ministers of the EU made last fall. It relating to starting negotiations on making the states of the South Caucasus associated EU members. In November 2009 the EU has already signed an agreement with Georgia on visa facilitation. According to that, the businessmen, students, journalists and people, who have close relatives in Europe will benefit from this. The agreement will be binding from summer of the current year. Although the EU hasn’t officially initiated anything like this with Armenia but in their recent speeches the EU officials often mention the necessity of facilitating the visa regime with Armenia. It means in the near future RA citizens will have a chance to have an easier entry to the EU states.
