The Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, meeting today in Brussels, approved the EU regulations on the digitisation of the visa procedure. Italy was represented by the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani.
The approval of the EU Regulations is in continuity with the action that Minister Tajani has been promoting since the beginning of his mandate to increase the security of visa issuance procedures – a commitment demonstrated by the arrangement of inspection missions in the Italian embassies in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, which have taken place in recent months, and by the next ones that will take place in Italian diplomatic offices in Latin America.
“We are very satisfied with the approval of measures that bring the EU into the digital era, with the aim of strengthening legality and the fight against malfeasance,” commented the Deputy Prime Minister. “The security of visa procedures is a priority for the Italian government, and we are happy that it is now also a European requirement.”
Tajani then stressed the need for the Schengen area to move forward in a unified manner on this front, reiterating that “Italy has all the right credentials to be a reference country.”
The digitisation of the visa procedure pursues three main objectives. First, it will reduce the burden and costs of bureaucracy for Member States. Secondly, it will increase the security of the process, putting an end to “visa shopping” in several countries. Finally, it will speed up the visa procedure for third-country nationals.