COLOMBIAN and Peruvian citizens travelling to Europe will no longer need a visa for short stays, the EU has decided.
Spanish president Mariano Rajoy had called for visa requirements to be relaxed, given the high number of Colombian and Peruvian nationals living in Spain whose family members face headaches when travelling to visit them.
Also, EU nationals can visit most Latin American countries with just a valid passport and stay for up to three months before needing a visa, provided they do not exercise any commercial activity whilst there.
European Union ambassador in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, María Antonia van Gool says the exact date for visa requirements to be dropped is not yet known, since it will depend upon the necessary legislation and administrative transactions being completed, but that EU leaders were unanimously in favour of the move.
It will allow Peruvian and Colombian passport-holders to freely visit any of the countries which form part of the Schengen agreement relating to free movement.
These are 22 of the European Union's 28 member States, not including the UK, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Ireland, or Cyprus, and four others belonging to the wider European Economic Community (EEC) but not the EU – Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos has praised Rajoy for setting the ball rolling, and says it will present an excellent opportunity for transatlantic business, as well as making it easier for citizens of the two countries to visit Europe for holidays and see family members based in Spain.
