Dennis O’Harlem

It is safe to say that all post-Soviet space is incredibly tired of its isolation from the outer world, whose primary (in not the only) cause is the visa barrier between the CIS countries and the overwhelming majority of other countries. The need to obtain permission to enter the foreign territory is humiliating in itself, whoever would say whatever about the economic and political need in visas. Together with the need to get a visa a headache comes because of the lottery “will they give or will they not” and the necessity to compile a variety of relevant papers. Especially as it is taken as given that when you obtain visas to a number of major countries you must provide, apart from the specified mandatory set of documents, all possible proofs of your “strong connection” to your motherland. For example, thick folders in the US Embassy with title deeds for apartment, car, country residence etc. became a proverb.
I was abroad more than once and I recall the whole procedure of obtaining a visa with a great resentment. The very fact of the need to prove to someone that I deserve visiting their country excites indignation and despair in me! Why is it so that I, my relatives, friends and compatriots are treated as a potentially dangerous gathering of bad characters, amounting to the whole country? Personally me or the population of Belarus, what did we do to Schengen countries so that we have to pay 60 euro to enter these countries and to collect a pile of documents? But a single tourist spends much more money on lodging and food during a couple of days abroad than he or she pays for the visa! And if the issue is about the danger coming from us, would we become less dangerous for 60 euro? Be it the question of price only… In September I was obtaining a visa to Poland in its consulate in Moscow. A girl accepting the documents criticized me for not having submitted the documents in the order indicated on the stand at the entrance to the embassy (the application form on top, followed by another certificate, etc.)! Picture this! What a mockery!? I associate such “tricks” only with Soviet schools where you had to sit with your hands folded “correctly” on the school-desk. By the way, there were TWO mistakes (for that moment) on the official site of the consulate: one regarding the opening hours of the “window” where the documents are accepted – I was not late by sheer luck, and also the work certificate was not indicated in the list of mandatory documents. When I pointed out at these circumstances it did not provoke any embarrassment or, far less, excuses. How a normal person should feel when he or she spends his (her) time in such a way?
These emotional digressions are only some feelings of one person. But hundreds of thousands of people face this procedure on a regular basis! I am deeply persuaded that all that happens is an immediate projection of relations between our countries.
In answer to the question about reasons for this I usually hear something like: “It is not so simple. There are concurrent arrangements between States. In order to change them one has to change a chain of interconnected obligations, and this is complicated…” Give me a break! The only reason for existence of visa barriers is the need to use them as another instrument of influence in international relations.
Let’s look back at recent rhetoric around the visa situation.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, about reducing the Schengen visa fees for Belarusians: “We know that we cannot do it quickly. The main objective is easing of the visa regime, but, of course, after the countries will improve the security parameters”.
Jean-Eric Holzapfel, Chargé d’Affaires of the European Commission in Belarus: “The Schengen visa fee for Belarusians may be lowered to 35 euro only if Belarus becomes a full-fledged participant to the European Neighborhood Policy.”
Mireille Musso, Ambassador of France to Belarus: “The cost and procedure of obtaining Schengen visas for Belarusians will not change until Belarus and the European Union sign the agreement on cooperation and partnership in the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy.”
In other words, the abolishment of the visa regime is presented by parties as a certain advantage which should still be merited. What a bizarre fatal stupidity!
If there is a mutual desire to have open partner relations one day would suffice to resolve this issue in a mutually advantageous way. What happens at the inter-State level that the visa issue has not been resolved yet? Can it be true that nothing could be undertaken during several years? I prefer to be a hard-headed pragmatic in some issues, and now this pragmatic in me says that if something happens, it means that someone gains from it. It is a fact. But who may gain from this clumsy waltzing around the visa regime?
Of course, not the population which would be happy to travel without additional problems. And not the business, for sure: the number of tours to the neighboring countries decreased at least by 40%. And it is not surprising. According to Olga Wasilewska, coordinator of the project “Monitoring of the visa policy of the EU countries”, the number of visas issued to Belarusians during the last year was reduced by half, and the waiting time increased catastrophically, for example, from two to eight days for Poland. Accordingly, the tourist activity has also decreased which takes it toll on both sending and receiving countries: every tourist means hotel, and shopping, and food, and accompanying spending on the pastime. Receiving countries get less of all this. And of course, it is not the full list of problems.
I do not see any logically legitimate reasons for any party to choose exactly these objectively disadvantageous relations which restrain the development of relations.
The unwillingness of the Belarusian authorities to take the road of the unambiguous rapprochement with the European Union is evident. The current policy of the economic survival by means of tacking between two poles – Europe and Russia – simply does not allow any of the parties to perceive Belarus as a reliable partner with all ensuing consequences. The cautious attitude in taking decisions on cooperation, the counter-insurance by different agreements and a threat of imposing sanctions of different nature – here is the incomplete list of unhealthy manipulations which they have to resort to, and which kill the very essence of the sound partner relations on the vine.
Visas will be abolished only when all States will move to a new level of self-awareness and will be ready to a partnership of a new degree based on the mutual trust and responsibility.
Currently, visas are an evident reflection of the ongoing standoff and mistrust in relations between countries. The protective barrier which makes impossible the fruitful cooperation and efficient development. The deplorable evidence of the current political atmosphere of fear and mistrust and of a short-sighted outlook on international relations on the whole and the foreign policy of its own country in particular.