02/25/2008

News / Czech premier to sign memorandum on visa-free travel to US

Prague - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is to sign a document Tuesday that opens a speedy path for Czechs to go without visas to the US, but has been criticized by the European Commission. The Memorandum of Understanding defines the range of personal data the Czech citizens will have to disclose to US authorities in an online questionnaire to get approval for trips. The document also requires air marshals access to Czech-US flights.

The electronic questionnaire would significantly simplify the cumbersome and costly visa application process that Czechs, and other formerly-communist EU members except for Slovenia, must undergo now.

The US wants all 27 countries currently granted visa-free travel to agree to the rules now being accepted by the Czech Republic.

But that would complicate matters for the old EU members in the so-called visa-waiver programme who currently do not need to disclose any personal data to travel to the US.

"For us those conditions...are more advantageous than the current ones. I admit it is a bit stricter for the old states, but I don't care at all," Tyden weekly cited Topolanek as saying.

The European Commission has criticized Prague for striking a bilateral deal with Washington which could complicate its future negotiating position. The Czech government has countered that the memorandum does not infringe EU competences.

"The EU has done nothing for us on visas. There was no help, no solidarity in the past. It's in our interest to move ahead," the Guardian newspaper cited Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra as saying.

On Wednesday, Topolanek is scheduled to meet US President George W Bush in the White House, when they are expected to discuss US plans to place a radar base for its missile defence system on Czech soil.

Topolanek's office said in a statement that the premier will be fine-tuning last details of the treaties on the deployment, but is not planning to sign them during the upcoming trip.

Prague agreed earlier to wait until Warsaw is ready to wrap up its talks with Washington on the placement of a missile-shield interceptor missile silo in Poland.

The US plans to place missile-shield bases in former Soviet satellite countries have irked Russia, which claims the system's European arm would be aimed at its own nuclear arsenal. Washington and Moscow have so far failed to smooth over their dispute.

The Czech premier is to end his four-day North American trip in Canada where he is to meet his counterpart Stephen Harper, his office said.

Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/188052,czech-premier-to-sign-memorandum-on-visa-free-travel-to-us.html

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