Six EU States Create Visa Center In Moldova

Abbing said the pilot project has been set up within the Hungarian embassy in Moldova with Austria, Slovenia, and Latvia already taking part.

He said those four countries will be joined in the future by Denmark and Estonia.

Hungary is the only one among the six countries with an embassy in Chisinau.

Abbing said administrators from each country will pool together their skills, technical equipment, and knowledge in order to cooperate on the processing of visa applications from Moldovan citizens.

Each of the six countries will continue to issue their visas separately.

Among the countries operating the new visa center, Austria and Denmark are the only signatories of the Schengen Agreement.

The Schengen accord, which abolishes border checkpoints between member countries, currently covers 13 EU states, as well as EU non-members Iceland and Norway.

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org