BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
25/11/2008
Lithuanian-Belarusian border residents may travel without visas already in 2008
Petras Vaida, BC, Vilnius
The residents living near the Lithuanian-Belarusian state border will be granted a possibility to enter the both countries without visas. It is expected to sign an appropriate agreement already in 2008.
After Lithuania entered the Schengen area, the citizens of Belarus had to pay higher cost for visa to Lithuania, which stood at 60 euros. The dissatisfaction with such EU decision was voiced by the representatives of both Lithuania and Belarus, reports ELTA.
The prepared document would allow free movement for border residents with special long-term permissions in the territories within the distance of 50 kilometers from the state border.
According to the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the negotiations with Belarus on local traffic over the state border are still taking place, yet they soon will be completed. "The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects that this agreement with Belarus will be signed already this year and that the final procedure of coordinating the agreement in Belarus and the European Commission will not take long," Violeta Gaizauskaite, head of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Foreign Ministry, told ELTA on Monday.
Lithuania joined the Schengen area on 21 December 2007.
Source:
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltics_cis/?doc=7402
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