eu-com-schengen-coop

3. State of play
3.1 Application of the Visa Code
The visa code implementation is well under way in Uzbekistan. The LSC and embassies continued
to discuss in 2013 – 2014 practical aspects of the implementation, including the preparation of the
harmonized list of supporting documents. LSC also debated possible modifications of the visa code
and put forward the following recommendations as part of the consultation process launched by the
European Commission:
- Introduce requirement for harmonization of national lodging documents (currently some
more comprehensive than others)
- Introduce clause for conclusion of full representation agreements (inverted consultation)
- Introduce the possibility to determine visa fees based on reciprocity in cases where large
disproportions exist between Schengen visa fees and fees of the host country
- Introduce clause strengthening the role of the LSC (including assessment of migration risks)
- Introduce requirement for harmonization of visa policy for property holders (some
embassies issue visas based on property ownership)
- Art. 32 – modify the article to spell out that visa can be refused if previous vas was misused
(currently this is not spelled out); make similar reference to cases when unauthorized
changes in the passport were made (e.g. visas place from one page to another)
There has been a good ad-hoc support of the EU Delegation from HQ – it would be useful to
combine such support with a practical more in-depth training focused on consular issues and
implementation of the Visa Code for relevant delegation staff. EU MS consular staff would also
benefit from FRONTEX training on detecting falsified documents that had been organized in
other parts of the CIS.
3.2 Assessment of the need to harmonise the lists of supporting documents
The EU Delegation launched the discussion within the LSC about the assessment of the need to
harmonize the lists of supporting documents in 2012 and prepared a questionnaire for such
assessment based on inputs of LSC members. This work continued further in 2013, when LSC
members agreed to establish ad-hoc working groups on harmonization. Based on the input of the
two groups and further LSC discussion, EU Delegation prepared draft harmonized list of
supporting documents, which was eventually agreed by all LSC members on forwarded to the
Visa Committee on 18/9/2013. LSC also discussed and reacted to two rounds of follow up
questions and comments from the Visa Committee. The harmonized list is yet to be adopted by the
Visa Committee.
3.3 Exchange of information
There is a good exchange of information among member states related primarily to visa
shopping/abuse of issued visa. EU Delegation collects and shares quarterly visa statistics and also
contributes to the exchange of information by disseminating relevant information received from
Brussels.
3.4 Any other initiative taken in LSC
12893/14 PR/lm 192
DG D 1 A
EN