The Freedom of Travel - also for East Europeans

At the moment the European Union is concerned with the practical side of the enforcement of the Schengen agreement about free travel inside the EU.
At the same time citizens of Eastern Europe are confronted with intricate and detailed procedures if they want to travel outside their country, and especially into the European Union.

Two extremities in a free Europe.

They used to be locked in,
now they are locked out

Markus Schönherr, PASSAU

Five years after the revolutions the freedom of travel has not become reality for all East Europeans. Some countries are subject to special restrictions by the EU states. Among those are e.g. Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic States. Citizens of these states need visas to enter the EU. Unless the trip is for business purposes or something else "official", these visas can be obtained only by presentation of an officially witnessed invitation of an EU resident, who has to stand surety for his guest from Eastern Europe. There are further documents required such as health insurance, certifications of employment and vacation for the guest and a confirmation of income from the inviting person.

Climate of Corruption

In a climate of corruption unfortunately prevailing in the so called Wild East, it appears inevitable that some EU embassies arbitrarily state even stronger requirements, which lack any legal basis. This happened at the German Consulate General in Romania in 1994, and not even the German Foreign Office had any explanation for it.

Health insurance may be necessary. All other documents required, though, are instruments that curb the Freedom of Travel.

Very often bureaucracy and lack of personnel in consulates and embassies will delay the issue of visitor visas for months. Our visitor may have to ask for an appointment when to hand in his documents, then there will be another appointment when to pick up his visa. Unless all documents are o.k., there may be another appointment to hand in all the documents correctly. This procedure may take between several days and several months, depending on personnel and time of the year. Lacking politeness of consulate employees seems to be a minor problem in face of the rest. Fearing further harassment, people better not complain aloud.

Fortress Europe

An EU citizen wishing to go to Tunis or San Francisco, to Warsaw or Bucharest tomorrow, simply goes there. If necessary at all, he will be issued a visa at the border. This can be called Freedom of Travel. An East European citizen wishing to visit the Union will have to plan months in advance, not for getting the money, but for getting all the documents, and for the appointments at the consulates.

If our visitor from, say, Romania, has gotten his visa for, say, Germany, paid his exit fee of about ten per cent of an average monthly income to the Romanian government, and gone through all the "fun" of travelling through Fortress Europe. He may be lucky to reach Germany. But he may not dare think of travelling to Denmark, Norway or Sweden from Germany, or travel back the shorter way thru Austria instead of Czechia and Slovakia. All these countries want new visas and new procedures.

The EU countries all have laws to handle illegal immigrants, some are quite tough even. Some of them also have laws on legal immigration. Certainly it is rather impossible to decide if a foreigner is a tourist or to become an illegal alien. But then, I still remember when Germany lifted the visa requirements for Polish, Czech, Slovak and Hungarian citizens in 1991. Many Germans feared to be flooded with illegal immigrants and cheap workers. None of this happened. Demanding to abolish the visa requirements for Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic States, all of them members of the Council of Europe, may seem reckless at this point of time. But nevertheless: Nothing will happen but the Freedom of Travel to come true.

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