Visa-free border travel: First Poland – then Norway?
Visa-free travel in the border zone between Poland and Kaliningrad can trigger visa-freedom between Russia and the EU. Norway is negotiating similar visa-free travel in its border zone to Russia in the north.
Russia and Poland are closer to an agreement on visa-freedom for the population living in the border areas between the Russian enclave Kaliningrad and Poland. Visiting Warsaw on Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the issue with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski.
Poland already has such visa-freedom in its border areas to Ukraine.
After the meeting, Poland announced their support to the draft agreement on scrapping the entire visa regime between Russia and the EU, according to The Voice of Russia.
Visa freedom has become a hot-issue in the EU – Russian relation. The draft agreements with the road-map towards visa-freedom were presented at the last EU-Russian Summit in Rostov-on-Don in May this year. The agreements were not adopted.
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So far, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and now Poland, have supported the visa-freedom initiative between EU and Russia. Finland announced earlier this summer that they are in favour of visa-freedom, but in a slower speed by first making it easier to obtain multi-visas.
Norway, a non-EU member, but Member of the Schengen-agreement has said visa-freedom is the long-term goal.
Read more: EU Parliament wants visa-free travel with Russia
When Poland get an agreement on visa-free travel for the population living close to the border to the Russian enclave Kaliningrad, it could pave the way for Norway to get a similar agreement with Russia in the north. Norway share a 196 km long border with Russia, and the negotiation regarding visa-freedom for the people lining in a 30 km zone on each side of the border has been under way since Sergey Lavrov visited northern Norway in the spring 2008.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg discussed the establishment of a visa-free travel regime in a 30 kilometer borderzone on both sides of the Norwegian-Russian border during their meeting in Oslo in April this year.
However, the negotiations between Norway and Russia prior to the Russian President’s visit to Norway did not solve all disagreeements and as a result there was no deal to sign.
Sources in Norway’s Foreign Ministry confirms that the negotiations continues and a final deal on visa-freedom for the near-border inhabitants will come soon. However, no date is set.
The border-zone visa-free travel between Kaliningrad and the border areas on the Polish side might also trigger an expansion of the border zone currently under negotiation between Norway and Russia in the north. In Kaliningrad, all inhabitants could get access to travel without visa to the near border areas on the Polish side, even if that includes areas further away from the actual border then the first stipulated 30 kilometers.
Between Norway and Russia such door-opening from the Russian-Polish agreement can make it easier to allow Russian citizens living further away from the border than 30 kilometers to travel without visa to the Norwegian part of the border zone.
