Hi guys! Please read the following and help us brake the Visa Wall!!! The Citizens' Pact and EXIT festival invite all people of good will across the EU to help them in their campaign against increasing the visa fees for EU countries from 35 to 60 euros by recording themselves saying 'Not 60 Euros' in their own language and sending it to [log in to unmask] Once we collect samples of all the 20 EU official languages, we shall make a dance tune and then distribute it to radio stations, clubs and DJs all around Europe! The existing price of 35 euros, along with hours and days of queuing, complicated procedures, piles of documents needed, and often humiliating interviews are already enough to stop many people from Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania from travelling to the Union. It goes without saying that it is not the only cost - the overall cost, including the translation of documents, health insurance, copying and photographs can add up to as much as 200 euros, sometimes even more. This does not include days lost waiting in queues. Often, you need to come a couple of times to the embassy and sometimes people come to wait in front of the embassy one night before they are due, just to apply for the visa. The applicants are usually required to produce the following documents: the passport, its photocopy, two photos, letter of invitation, proof of health insurance, a document proving that you are fully employed or that you are a full-time student, and the filled-in visa form. The employed applicants have to present three last payslips. The embassies can also ask to see return flight tickets, birth certificate, marriage certificate, proof of hotel reservation and vouchers and in some embassies, even the copies of banknotes one has planned to spend in EU. Having collected all the required documents is under no circumstances a guarantee that the applicant shall get the visa. If the applicant is refused the visa, the money he or she has paid is not refundable. Citizens of Macedonia alone spend more than 10 million euros for visas annually. Due to such a stern visa regime, generations of young people from the above mentioned countries have been raised in such a way that they have met different cultures only on their TV screens. According to one research, more than two thirds of Serbian students have not been abroad and the situation is probably not much better in the other countries, either. At the same time, those who grow in isolation are expected to build a new, better and stable region?! Ministers of Justice and Home Offices of EU countries will be discussing the rise in visa fees at their next meeting at the end of April in Luxembourg. The argument for this is the introduction of a new biometric visa system that is due to start on January 1, 2007. In case the ministers find that more money is necessary, we are asking for a decision to exempt the citizens from the Western Balkans from the higher fee, as it has been announced in cases of Russia and Ukraine. This rise will completely oppose the conclusions of the last meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of EU countries, confirming once more that the future of the countries of Western Balkans lies in EU. It would be a slap in the face of all the citizens of Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania who all believe in their European integration. This is just another brick in the Schengen Wall. Dusica Brankov President AEGEE Beograd ---------------------------- mailto: [log in to unmask] msn: [log in to unmask] web: www.aegee-beograd.org.yu --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail: gratis 1GB per i messaggi, antispam, antivirus, POP3 ============================================================================= RAINBOW-L is a regional discussion list of AEGEE. Check out http://www.aegee.uni-karlsruhe.de/archives for the archives of public lists. To unsubscribe send 'unsubscribe RAINBOW-L' to [log in to unmask]