Russia, EU may soon coordinate steps to scrap visas

Russia and the EU may agree a project of common measures to switch over to visa free regime during the coming weeks, Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told Russia Today satellite TV channel on Thursday.

“Russia and the EU are currently preparing packs of joint measures. I hope, this document will be discussed and agreed during the next weeks,” Chizhov said.

Earlier, Chizhov said that the EU and Russia have made considerable progress in their talks. He identified the introduction of biometric passports as one of the main issues under discussion.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at Russia-EU summit last summer that the time is ripe for scrapping the visa regime between Russia and EU. “We want a visa free regime,” he said. “We think that we are ready for this; our businesses and people are in favor of it; you could say it is the spirit of the time.”

EU delegation to Russia head Fernando Valenzuela told RIA Novosti in November 2010 that it was too early to discuss any specific timeframe for the scrapping of visas because there were too many problems that had to be jointly resolved.

MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti)

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