eu-com-schengen-coop

EUROPEAN UNION
Office of the European Union Representative
(West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA)
LOCAL SCHENGEN COOPERATION (LSC) JERUSALEM
2013-2014 REPORT 99
1. Introduction
The area covered by the LSC is composed of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Some
Member States (MS) issue visas in Jerusalem and some in Ramallah whereas others only collect
applications in those locations including Gaza and process them in Tel Aviv ( Israel), Jerusalem,
Ramallah or Amman (Jordan).
The members of LSC Jerusalem are therefore from either:
- Consulate Generals in Jerusalem (BE, SE, GR, ES, IT and FR),
- Representative Offices in Ramallah (AT, DK, SI, CH, DE, NL, HU, PT, and MT)
- Representative Offices in Al Ram - Jerusalem: (NO)
or from
- Embassies in Tel Aviv (FI, CZ, PL, SK, EE, LV and LT).
IS and LU have no representation of their own in this jurisdiction. IS is thus represented by DK and
LU is represented by BE. CH represents EE, SI and FL in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
SE represents CH in Gaza.
A main administrative and logistical problem is the fact that not all MS are present in all three areas
covered by the LSC. This is a problem because not all visa applicants residing in one given area can
travel to a visa office located in Jerusalem, Ramallah or Tel Aviv in order to lodge their applications
in person (collective restrictions on movement imposed by the Israeli authorities), as made
compulsory by the start of the Visa Information System (VIS) in the jurisdiction on 14 November
2013
Considering the above, a number of MS (BE, SE and DK) had opened a common application
centre/Schengen office in Gaza. Moreover, some member states (ES, BE, IT, GR) contracted an
external company to outsource the collection of visa applications for the West Bank and a number
of MS have showed an interest in doing the same in Gaza, Spain having started in February 2014.
For more information see point 3.4 below.
99 April 2013 – March 2014
12893/14 PR/lm 198
DG D 1 A
EN