Europe needs to establish a better arrangement for obtaining a Schengen visa
By David Jessop
In a matter of months the Economic Partnership Agree-ment (EPA) with Europe will be signed in Barbados. While the formal treaty arrangement may come into being against a background of demonstrations in part orchestrated by bodies from outside the region, there is no political appetite in the region to reject what has been agreed.
This means that the EPA’s trade provisions will gradually come into force while other aspects will take effect immediately.
Under the new treaty and after its signing, Caribbean business men and women and professionals plus those involved in providing cultural services will have the right to temporarily enter Europe for a cumulative period of not more than six months in any twelve-month period. Similar arrangements that were for the most part already in place will apply to their European counterparts arriving in the Caribbean.
But what seems to be less well understood is that these new arrangements will still be subject to whatever visa or entry arrangements that European or Caribbean nations have.