The Council of the European Union (EU) arrested a negotiation mandate on Wednesday on the digitization and unification of the Visa Schengen Visa procedure.
The proposal establishes the possibility of requesting an online visa and replaces the current vignette-vision with a digital visa.
This initiative aims to “make the visa request procedure more efficient and improve the security of the Schengen space”, said the EU council in a press release, adding that the new rules proposed will create a unified platform dedicated to visa requests.
“A Digital Schengen Visa will allow travelers in order to more easily request a visa and at the same time contribute to making the Schengen space safer”.
Online requests will reduce the number of trips that travelers must make at the consultation and will facilitate the process for national administrations.
At the same time, the digital visa will eliminate the risk of falsification and theft of the vignette-visa, explains Maria Malmer Stenergard, Swedish Minister of Migration in the same press release.
The Commission presented on April 27, 2022, a legislative proposal aimed at digitizing the visa procedure. On the basis of negotiations arrested on March 29, the presidency of the Council will begin negotiations with the European Parliament in order to achieve an agreement on the final text, concludes the same source.
