Poland announces visa revolution
Prime Minister Donald Tusk says a local visa free zone between Poland and Russia will be established “in few weeks”. The zone, which will include more than four million people, will require a revision of the Schengen regulations.
Donald Tusk, who made a stop in the Warmia-Masuria Province as part of an election campaign tour, promised the regional population that it in “few weeks” will get a local visa-free zone with the Russian region of Kaliningrad. The cabinet leader maintained that the city of Gdansk and all of Kaliningrad Oblast will be included in the zone, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.
If established, the zone will be the second of its kind between Russia and a Schengen member. In November 2010, a similar agreement on local border traffic was signed by Russia and Norway, and a local zone of visa-free traveling is in the pipeline in the areas between the municipalities of Sør-Varanger and Pechenga.
Read also:Duma ratifies border-area visa-freedom with Norway
Reportedly, the Polish-Russian deal has already been approved by the two countries’ governments, as well as the European Commission. A confirmation is now only needed from the European Parliament, RIA Novosti reports.
However, it remains unclear how the deal will affect the regulations of the Schengen Code. According to the Schengen regulations, agreements on local border traffic can be established in zones stretching 30 km, and in exceptional cases up to 50 km, from the border. If all of Kaliningrad Oblast as well as the city of Gdansk are to be included in the zone, it will be a serious breach of the regulations. While Gdansk is located about 100 km from the state border, the northern parts of Kaliningrad Oblast are more than 150 km away.
The establishment of the zone would set precedence for a number of other regions located along the European Union’s eastern Schengen border.
Read also:First opening in the Schengen-regime with Russia
The agreement on local border traffic in the Polish-Russian border areas has been lobbied fiercely by both the Poles and the Russians. The day before a visit to Brussels in February this year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin confirmed that his government had agreed with the EU on the introduction of the visa-free zone for Kaliningrad Oblast. Since then, however, little news about progress on the issue has been presented to the public.
Read also: Kaliningrad gets visa-free traveling
