Feasibility Study for consular and Visa Cooperation Among the Visegrad States for Residents of Ukraine and Moldova

Earlier research indicated that the single most disruptive aspect of EU enlargement for citizens of neighboring states was the requirement to obtain a visa in order to travel to new EU member states. The basic goal of this project was to test the feasibility of introducing a system of consular cooperation among four Visegrad states on the territory of the Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova in order to reduce the distance and time needed for obtaining visas. Researchers analyzed the situation regarding three principal barriers to the introduction of consular cooperation among the Visegrad countries: lack of political will, incompatibility of procedures and insufficient technology, and a too low level of demand for facilitated access to visas to warrant the investment. These questions were tested through interviews with staff at the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in the four capitals and at consulates, and through on-site assessment of the technical capacity of consular posts in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. The project was carried out by a consortium of four research institutes/think tanks, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) in Warsaw as the coordinating institution, Europeum Institute for European Policy in Prague, the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association in Bratislava, and CPS in Budapest, under the aegis of the Policy Association for an Open Society (PASOS). The project was funded by the Local Governance Initiative of the Open Society Institute.