Visa hotline: the telephone line is being set up for information about visa
Visa hotline is being set up on June 10th
2008 simultaneuosly in 5 countries from
Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia and
Albania). For the first time civil society
organizations from the five countries from Western Balkans are holding a joint
action in order to assess the impacts of the visa facilitation agreements and
to campaign for a visa free regime.
Our citizens will have the opportunity to call a telephone number or send an E-mail about their experiences (bad or good) in the process of obtaining a visa for the Schengen zone and ask about their rights in the framework of the new visa facilitation agreements. On the other side of the line, experts in visa issues will reply to the requests and take note of different situations these persons encountered when applying for a visa in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results will be compiled in a study that will be sent to national governments and EU institutions.
The hotline is expected to last during next two weeks, Monday to Friday from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. The telephone numbers and E-mail address which is at citizens' disposal are as follows:
387 63 552 000; 387 62 634 000; 387 66 471 000; viza@vesta.ba
The hotline results will mostly be presented in the form of "real-life stories" in order to attract the attention of the decision-makers as successfully as possible. Furthermore, the hotline results will be delivered to the national governments. In addition, a more comprehensive report which will incorporate the survey and hotline findings from all 5 countries participating in the project will be presented in Brussels (to the European Union, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the regular representatives of the State Members of the European Union) for the purpose of exerting pressure for the introduction of reliefs and the liberalization of the visa regime.
ECAS' partners in the launching of the Visa Hotline on monitoring the visa facilitation agreements: European Movement (Albania), VESTA Association (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation (Macedonia), Centre for civic education (Montenegro), Citizens' pact for South East Europe (Serbia).
