eu-com-schengen-coop

exchange served as a basis for future top-down / bottom-up best practices exchanges aimed at
ensuring further communication, coordination and follow-up in loco.
The LSC-India became, in the reporting period, a systematic and rationalized cooperation under the
coordination of the EUD, which was a constant point of reference for MS and a source of regular
updates/information on initiatives on visa and mobility-related issues adopted at Brussels level. The
EUD granted constant monitoring, tackling MS concerns and proposing practical ways to move
further and relevant follow-ups to the LSC complex and technical exercise, which bears particular
political connotations in India. Its pragmatic, result-oriented, super partes role was increasingly
appreciated by the MS, whose committed attendance, enthusiastic participation and active
interaction during both Plenary and SG meetings improved considerably throughout the reporting
period, allowing the LSC to further advance quantitatively as well as qualitatively. If compared to
the previous reporting period, the number of Plenary meetings almost halved (from 15 to 9) , that of
single-topic / SG meetings multiplied, reflecting MS strong commitment to advance the
harmonisation of local practices at grass-root, bottom-up level. MS considered that by the end of the
reporting period the LSC had acquired a comprehensive overview of the problems New Delhi visa
sections are daily confronted with. They also deliberated that "without the EUD to spur the
harmonisation exercise, there would be no harmonised application of the Visa Code in India". EU
MS representatives, in particular, judged that the LSC was "the most effective sectoral EUcoordination
exercise carried out by the EUD". This was a considerable improvement if compared
to 2012-13. The LSC-India also provided an example to and shared its "best practice" with other
EUDs 55 as well as non-EU missions in India. Its forefront role was recognised in Brussels. 56 If the
EUD was, in the reporting period, the LSC Plenary catalyst, the SGs provided a multiplier factor,
without which all the outcomes detailed in the following section would have not been achieved. By
the end of the reporting period, all MS were strong advocates of the necessity to harmonise
practices locally, and then align completely to the harmonised approach endorsed.
As for the EUD role, besides secretarial, ancillary tasks 57 , it convened the Plenary, setting its
agenda; hosted and chaired its meetings; collected and disseminated data and relevant information,
ahead, during and after the Plenaries 58 ; drafted and circulated locally summary reports ("minutes")
containing operational conclusions for further follow-up. The draft minutes, sent to the MS with a
deadline for comments and amendments, were then approved formally by the subsequent Plenary
and served as useful record of various harmonisation resolutions adopted. So far, MS have rarely
shared such minutes with their capitals.
In locations outside the capital, local harmonisation was ensured more on an ad hoc basis as LSC
meetings were held by rotating chairs, according to practical agreements reached locally. Those MS
recommended a more structured involvement of the EUD in the harmonisation exercise, requesting
that joint MS/EUD meetings outside the capital took place at least once a semester. As this was not
possible in the reporting period, in order to promote, concretely, an all-encompassing coverage /
information sharing throughout the sub-continent, the EUD adopted a simple, practical, measure. It
extended to all MS Consular posts, the Plenary's thriving electronic exchange.
55 These requested guidance in devising/rationalising their LSC interactions. Some of them built upon New Delhi
experience to exploit all available economies of scale.
56 The EUD-India representative was selected to share New Delhi "best practices" of this part of intra-EU coordination
during the Annual Seminar of Political Officers (and Deputy Heads of Delegation) organised by the EEAS at the end of
the reporting period (March 2014).
57 These crucial activities in the daily management of the group range from sending invitations to the MS, and keeping
an update of the contact and attendance lists to organising the logistics of the meetings, supervising the electronic
information exchange, etc.
58 In the context of information exchange it also circulated several practical documents to MS: i) Visa Code Handbook
Annexes updates; ii) mobility-related information (EU reports, press releases, etc.), including relevant Schengen
legislation applicable and its updates; iii) periodic updates of MS contact lists; statistical tables, list of acronyms, etc.
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