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European parliamentarians support exemption from the Schengen visa for Ecuador
Posted On 11 May 2018
Ecuadornews:
A delegation of the European Parliament (EP) today visiting Ecuador supported this country’s request that its citizens be exempted from the Schengen visa in a statement the group of Ecuadorian deputies of the Andean Parliament.
The European delegation expressed “intent to actually work for the exemption from Schengen visa,” says the press release issued after a meeting in Quito in which they participated, on one side, the Ecuadorian deputies of the Andean Parliament, and the other, those of the EP delegation.
European representation is headed by the president of the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, Luis de Grandes Pascual, and composed of MEPs Agustin Diaz de Mera, Gabriel Mato, Tadeusz Zwiefka, Inmaculada Rodríguez-Piñero and Helmut Scholz.
Ecuador has been working since September 2017 to ensure that its status is equal to that of Peru and Colombia, which were exempted from the visa by signing the Multiparty Agreement with the EU in 2012.
Quito joined that treaty in November 2016, and by then the exemption was canceled.
The vice president of the Andean Parliament, Rosa Mireya Cárdenas, assured that Ecuador has worked “in complying with the technical requirements that allow visa exemption for Ecuadorians.”
“An example of this is the work promoted for the implementation of the biometric passport, which we have developed in coordination with the different functions of the Ecuadorian State,” she added.
Luis de Grandes stressed that both regions share common symbols that allow a constant approach in the construction of policies and agreements that benefit both peoples, according to the statement.
“There is a very strong affinity with the Andean Parliamentarians, in fact, within the European Parliament there is a commission for relations with the countries of the Andean Community,” he said.
The meeting also discussed the situation in Ecuador on its border with Colombia, the results of the signing of the trade agreement with the European Union and the process after the 2016 earthquake in Manabi and Esmeraldas reconstruction. (I)
