NO to 60 EUR! Campaign

Gradjanski pakt za Jugoistocnu Evropu

The Citizens� Pact for SEE and the EXIT Festival call for action against the rise of Schengen Visa Fees from 35 to 60 EUR. They call on all people of good will in the European Union to assist the campaign againt the announce price hike by recording the sentence �No to 60 Euro!� in their own language and send it to not60euros@citizenspact.org.yu.

After the samples are collected in all 20 official European languages, they will be used to create a song that will be distributed to radio stations, clubs and DJs all over Europe.

The current visa fee of 35 EUR is already high enough and, combined with long queau lines, complicated procedures, the amount of paperwork that has to be submitted and often humiliating interviews in consular departments, presents an insurmountable obstacle for many young people from Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonian and Albania that wish to travel to the Union.

This fee, however, is not the single cost that needs to be covered: the total costs, including translation of documents by official court interpreter, health insurance, copying and photographs, can amount up to 200 EUR, even more. We didn�t even take into account the time lost waiting in queues. It often takes several visits to a given consular office. Exit and CP note that just the citizens of Macedonia spend more than 10 million EUR on visas per year.

The strict visa regime has contributed to a situation in a situation in which whole generations meet other cultures only through the TV screens. According to one survey, almost two thirds of the students in Serbia hasn�t travelled abroad, and the situation is not much better in the other countries of the region. At the same time, we expect from the people that grow up in isolation to create better and stable society.

The increased visa fees are totally opposed to the messages sent by the last meeting of EU Foreign Ministers, who reiterated the position that Balkan countries have their future in the EU. That will be a slap in the face for all citizens of SCG, B&H, Macedonia and Albania that believe in the European integrations. This will be just another brick in the Schengen Wall, say the two organizations.

Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs will discuss the fee raise in Luxemburg, on April 27. The argument used to justify the higher prices are the increased costs of new biometric visas that will enter into use on January 1, 2007.