eu-com-schengen-coop

EUROPEAN UNION
DELEGATION TO GHANA
LOCAL SCHENGEN COOPERATION (LSC) ACCRA, GHANA
2013-2014 REPORT 38
1. Introduction
The Danish Embassy was chairing the LSC meetings until 05/06/2014, the chair was transferred to
the Italian Embassy. The following MS and LSC Embassies are present in Accra:
Czech Republic (CZ) – represents SK,
Denmark (DK) – represents FI, IS and SE,
France (FR) – no longer issues Schengen Visas,
Germany (DE) – represents EE,
Italy (IT) – represents MT,
Netherlands (NL) – represents LU, FR, PL, LT and AT
Spain (ES) – represents EL, PT and SI,
Switzerland (CH) – represents BE,
Norway (NO)
England(UK)
2. LSC meetings held in 2013-2014
There were no meetings until the second half of the first semester of 2014. 2 meetings were held to
prepare the handing over to the Italian Embassy.
The next foreseen meeting will be held most probably in September 2014.
During those meetings the Embassies mainly exchange information regarding visas processing and
fraudulent behaviour. They exchange tips and tricks to discover fraudulent applicants and exchange
information openly. However, this exchange should be done via the VIS system which was
deployed last year. Apparently the missions based in Accra are using VIS to a certain extend due to
technical issues. They mainly exchange information via unencrypted email between consulates.
3. State of play
3.1 Application of the Visa Code
In all meetings participants discuss mainly about technical issues: Visa code implementation, best
practices on how to process a visa on travel documents locally, notably to prevent frauds. They also
share the latest improvement in forgeries by the Ghanaian applicants.
The slow-moving economy of Ghana and the early 2014 decision by the Bank of Ghana forbidding
foreign currency transactions had a negative impact on the import/export activities. This context
provoked the relocation of companies in the mining sector and downsizing of their employees. This
38 2014
12893/14 PR/lm 85
DG D 1 A
EN