Seeking to alleviate the inconvenience of Guyanese having to travel to either Suriname or Trinidad and Tobago to interview for a visa to Europe, government is continuing discussions with the European Community on establishing visa services here.
“There is no commitment but it is something they recognise as important,” Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd told Stabroek News.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had reported that Todd met with European Union Ambassador to Guyana Fernando Ponz Canto and that the issue of visas for travel to Europe was discussed.
“The Foreign Minister further updated the Ambassador on enhancing diplomatic relations at Headquarters and by extension Guyana’s Embassy in Brussels and Permanent Mission in Geneva. Minister Todd also used the opportunity to follow up on processing visas for entry into the EU community in Georgetown,” the ministry stated.
Todd said that government was “looking at having a permanent embassy here, where we can get processing here instead of having to go to Suriname or Trinidad and Tobago”.
He said that unlike Suriname where there are both French and Dutch embassies and in Trinidad and Tobago where there is a German Embassy, the EU will have to see which of its member states would want an embassy here and responsible for the processing.
In 2018, the Guyana Government had expressed concern, “if not alarm” to a visiting European Union Delegation of ambassadors about Guyanese not having visa-free entry into Schengen countries of the European Union (EU) and said it was seeking fair treatment on the issue.
“The reasons for not treating Guyana similarly have not been made by the European Union. As far as we can see from the criteria they use, Guyana falls squarely amongst those countries that do not pose, as they would say, a risk, and therefore it should be treated differently,” then Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge had said.
“We believe that it is discriminatory. Most Caricom countries have visa free travel to some Schengen countries,” he had noted.
In 2015, the EU waived the Schengen visa requirement for a number of Caricom countries including Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, allowing the nationals of those countries for a period of stay of up to 90 days annually. Barbados and St Kitts and Nevis are among those that also enjoy similar treatment.
The then High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, Frederica Mogherini, had told the ministry’s officials in a meeting that “they are not now going to look at Guyana until a new council comes into office.”
Greenidge said, that was like, “kicking it down the road or into the tall grass depending on how you look at it, which makes us extremely unhappy.”
Todd emphasized that there was no commitment and therefore there could be “no timeframe or timeline” given as the issue had to be discussed and agreed upon with the EU nations before any decision.
