eu-com-schengen-coop

- Belgium
- France
- Germany
- The Netherlands
2. Local Schengen Cooperation meetings held in 2013 - 2014
During the reporting period (April 2012 – March 2013) six of scheduled EU Schengen Group
meetings were held on:
1. 22 May 2013
2. 31 July 2013
3. 26 September 2013
4. 20 November 2013
5. 22 January 2014
6. 12 March 2014
There were two extraordinary meetings:
In October 2013
In March 2014
– Internal Seminar on fake Documents (facilitated by specialists from the
Netherlands);
– Meeting organised by the representatives of the Belgian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Service (best practices in dealing with fake
documents).
All the meetings, either scheduled or extraordinary, were well attended. There were no substantial
changes compared to the previous reporting period. The number of short term visas issued by the
Schengen MS Embassies for NG citizens does not vary very much in comparison with the past three
years (year 2013 – 52,917; year 2012 – 51,895; year 2011 – 48, 609; year 2010 – 51,059).
The representatives of the MS commonly agreed to maintain the bimonthly ordinary meetings, and
consider this frequency as satisfactory. They would also like to devote a part of these meetings to
discuss some specific issues (outsourcing, reliability of insurance companies, internal organization
of visa procedure, etc.). Occasional seminars/trainings are generally dedicated to new techniques on
detecting fake documents, and methods to identify new threats.
The Chair (EU) provides logistics support by preparing the agenda and draft minutes of the
meetings which are then distributed to all Members for their comments and contribution. Some
Members forward the final versions of the minutes to their respective HQs while others do not.
The Chair has proposed that an LSC meeting be organized in Lagos once a year.
3. State of play
3.1. Application of the Visa Code
The most important issue for all Schengen MS in Abuja during the reporting period was – as in
previous years – the Nigerian Authorities' demand to shorten and to simplify the Schengen visa
procedure. They constantly complain about the long period (15 days) which is required to obtain
Schengen visas for both official and private visits.
12893/14 PR/lm 130
DG D 1 A
EN