mr president the proposal to transfer taiwan to the positive visa list was adopted by the commission on five july this year
taiwan is as we all know a well-developed and stable democracy
it meets all the necessary technical requirements
the proposal is a result of a periodic review of the visa list and based on suggestions coming from member states
the commission assesses a variety of conditions irregular migration public policy public security reciprocity regional coherence and the external relations of the european union
we need to reinforce regional coherence in south-eastern asia
other similar developed third countries such as hong kong macao japan south korea and singapore are already visa-free
in addition a process has unarguably been set in motion regarding relations between taiwan and mainland china which is also proven by the establishment of direct flights and the conclusion of an economic cooperation framework agreement between them
as was said by the rapporteur and mr kovatchev the united kingdom ireland new zealand and south korea have already granted visa-free travel to taiwanese citizens and canada is currently in the process of exempting taiwan from the visa obligation
any visa waiver granted to the citizens of taiwan should of course be reciprocated
taiwan has progressively eliminated visa requirements for nationals of a large majority of eu member states and has committed itself to granting a full visa regime for all eu citizens
romanian bulgarian and cypriot citizens will be free to travel to taiwan without a visa as from eleven november which is tomorrow so you can book your tickets furthermore taiwan will extend the allowed period for eu citizens to remain in taiwan to ninety days on the entry into force of the eu visa waiver
the proposal also covers the deletion of the northern mariana islands from the negative list since the territory forms part of the us
visa freedom and visa liberalisation is a great way of bringing people together closer to each other students researchers ordinary people the business community researchers and others
this is a very important decision that we are about to take
procedurally this is codecision as you know but i am glad to inform you that the council members have already expressed their very broad support for this
as i understand and thanks to the work of the rapporteur mr díaz de mera and the shadow rapporteurs there is also very strong support in this parliament so i hope there will be a good vote tomorrow
there was only one amendment to the commission proposal proposed both in the council and in the european parliament aiming to exclude the sixty zero so-called overseas taiwanese nationals
the rapporteur and member states in the council were of the view that these people need prior authorisation from taiwan to enter their own country
therefore it would be a logical and reasonable step for the eu to exclude this category from the visa waiver
the commission accepts this amendment
i would like to thank the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs for their excellent support and cooperation on this file
i am sure that the full reciprocal visa waiver will give a boost to the very good relations between the eu and taiwan in various sectors such as tourism and trade and benefit all parties
