Travel visa

Serbians can travel to 104 countries without visas

WASHINGTON -- A financial firm that "empowers individuals and families to become Global Citizens" has compiled a list of "best power-ranked passports."

Romania already meets a part of the Visa Waiver Program requirements, U.S. Consul General in Bucharest Henry Leighton said on Wednesday, adding that a working group on consular subjects made up of Romanian and U.S. officials is handling the rest of the requirements.

Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES FLOW

?I don?t say it impolitely, but I say it directly: I don?t want to see you here again,? said Muriel Domenach, the French Consul General in Istanbul, talking about her conversations with visa-seeking Turks. 

18 Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) deputies have put forth a bill in Greek Parliament to allow for 72-hour visas for Turks visiting Thrace, Eastern Macedonian and the Aegean islands. The proposal hopes that visas-on-arrival for Turkish nationals would increase the stream of tourism from Turkey to Greece.

Restaurant and hotel owners held a procession in the city of Burgas on Sunday, calling on the government to ease visa regulations for Russian tourists to help Bulgaria's tourism sector cope with a recent decline in the number of Russian visitors.

"The current visa regime toward Kosovo is cynical injustice, which should come to and sooner than later, because it does not only offend the dignity of Kosovo's people but also the dignity of Europe," Rama said on Monday.

"Keeping Kosovo under the current visa regime is a shame for Europe," he added.

Bulgaria's Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has suggested that a tough summer season lies ahead.

In a Monday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Angelkova suggested that industry representatives had to join efforts to use EU funds to boost the quality of the product.

Removing visa requirements and the continuation of the political dialogue for Romanian citizens to receive, in the shortest time possible, equal treatment in terms of visas with the citizens of the other EU states were among the subjects on the agenda of the talks between Minister-delegate for Relations with Romanians Everywhere Angel Tilvar and Canadian officials, during the Romanian official'

The EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, lauded the recent drop in illegal migration to EU countries.

Speaking during a visit to Kosovo on Tuesday, he said: "Detections of irregular border crossings of Kosovo citizens at the Serbian Hungarian border has dropped in the past month from 1,400 to 15 a day. This is a spectacular outcome."

Bulgaria will simplify visa requirements for Russian tourists in 2015, according to Boyko Kotsev, Bulgaria's Ambassador to Russia.

Russians account for the fourth largest group of tourists in Bulgaria, according to reports of Russian news agency RIA Novosti, as cited by Sega daily.

In 2014, some 650 000 Russian tourists visited Bulgaria, just 1% up from 2013.