BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – The visa procedures for the border-free Schengen area are to be digitized. Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU states agreed on this on Tuesday evening in Brussels. In the future, people should be able to apply for their visa online. Applicants could then upload all their relevant documents and pay the visa fees via a single platform, regardless of the country. The current visa sticker in the passport is to be replaced by a digital visa.
This should make visa procedures more efficient and the Schengen area safer. According to the EU Commission, the application procedures in the various countries currently differ, are very paper-intensive and therefore also expensive. Physical visas are more likely to be counterfeited, fraudulent and stolen than digital visas, a statement said.
In the Schengen area, to which 26 European countries belong, there are no stationary identity checks at the borders. The agreement now has to be approved by the member states. After that, the necessary law can be formally passed./rew/DP/men