Moldovans to apply for Swedish visas at Single EU Visa Issuing Centre starting from 1 April

Moldovans will be able to apply for Swedish visas at the Single EU Visa Issuing Centre, managed by the Hungarian embassy in Chisinau, starting from 1 April 2008. An agreement to this effect was signed by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, on a visit to Moldova, and Hungarian Ambassador in Chisinau Mihaly Bayer.

After the signing ceremony, Carl Bildt highly appreciated the model of creation of the centre and voiced hope that it will be taken over by other countries to ease people's movement.

For his part, Hungarian Ambassador Mihaly Bayer told journalists that currently the institution negotiates the accession of Norway and Cyprus to the centre.

Bayer also specified that in the first months of 2008, the centre provided informational assistance to 3,500 visits and received about 700 visa applications, most of which for Hungary - 34 per cent and Austria - some 32 per cent.

Sweden is the eighth state joining the Single EU Visa Issuing Centre, opened on 25 April 2007. Currently, the centre issues visas for Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia. Starting from December 2007, when Hungary entered the Schengen zone, the centre issues Schengen visas as well. In addition, after 1 January 2008, when the Moldova-EU agreement on the facilitation of the visa regime entered into force, the centre issues visas for Moldovans under a facilitated regime.