eu-com-schengen-coop

oader scale changes both in Abuja and Lagos (the number of all kinds of visas, refusal
rates, etc.). The Chair prepared such statistics for the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and
2013. It is a good substance to analyse changes and trends The annual visa statistics is
normally an issue for discussion during one of the LSC meetings in the first semester of the
year;
Fraud or fake documents – cases are described by emails by the MS which discovered it,
disseminated to all partners, and discussed afterwards during the following meeting;
Suspicious or doubtful applications – cases are also checked via email.
One real and important problem which raises a growing concern among the Schengen MS is the
reliability of the travel medical insurance (TMI). Extending cooperation in this area, the LSC Group
started to exchange information about the most reliable and trust-worthy insurance companies. Of
course, the MS are free to indicate and to choose reliable insurance companies, but such platform
creates new opportunities. In practice, the MS exchanges (by email) the names of companies they
accept and those doubtful. The LSC Group agreed that at the present situation no further steps are
needed.
The exchange of information between Schengen Consuls/Visa Officers is really efficient. All
questions or remarks shared by email are quickly answered or commented by others. The Chair
(EU) is always in copy.
3.4. Other initiatives taken by the LSC
As mentioned in point 2 the Special Internal Seminars on False Documents were organized in
October 2013, and in March 2014. The highly qualified and experienced experts from the
Netherlands (October 2013) and from Belgium (March 2014) presented all possible kinds of fraud
and fake documents, used by visa applicants mostly as supporting ones. They also showed ways and
methods to verify authenticity of presented documents.
Such seminars/training sessions with participation of experts from different MS has become a kind
of tradition in LSC Group in Abuja. It gives our Visa-Officers a wider glance on what they should
be aware of, on new threats, on new methods of documents' falsification, and how to avoid them. Of
course – these training seminars are always very well attended. They could be organized in Lagos,
too.
12893/14 PR/lm 132
DG D 1 A
EN