European Parliament has voted in favor of visa waiver for Georgia on Thursday, 2nd of February. 553 voices “pro”, 66 “against”, “Europe without barriers” reports from live air translation of the EP plenary.
Following adoption by the European Parliament, visa waiver for Georgia should be adopted by the Council of the EU, than the text will be signed and published in the Official Journal of the EU.
Under the visa exemption, Georgians who hold a biometric passport will be able to enter the EU without requesting a visa for 90 days in any 180-day period, for business, tourist or family purposes.
The visa waivers apply to the Schengen area, which includes 22 EU member states (all except Ireland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria) plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
According to the decision of COREPER, the visa waiver for Georgia will enter into force on the same date as the review of the visa suspension mechanism, which was approved by Parliament on 15 December (still pending finalisation of the official translation of the legal texts).
Also COREPER has stated that trialogue on visa waiver for Ukraine should start after the revised suspension mechanism is adopted by EU institutions.
Update: According to Rikard Jozwyak EP rapporteur Mariya Gabriel promised that visa waiver for Georgia will enter into force by the end of the March
the EP rapporteur on #Georgia visa lib @GabrielMariya: “Georgians can travel visa free definitely before the end of March”
— Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) February 2, 2017
