Hillary Clinton: We decided to work on lifting the visas for Romanians, but Congress demands need be obeyed

Miercuri, 2 iunie 2010, 13:47 English | Politics

"As EU and NATO member, we believe that the Romanian citizens deserve to travel freely to the US, without visas", press statement posted by Romanian Foreign Affairs minister Teodor Baconschi on the State Department's website after meeting his US homologue Hillary Clinton read. In her turn, the American state secretary said the Washington administration is willing to work with the administration in Bucharest so that the Romanian citizens would follow the rules to obtain the visas, but in lines with the standards imposed by the Congress and stipulated by the US legislation.

"I discussed with the state secretary our wish to work together to find solutions to include Romania in the Waiver Visa Plan, as full EU and NATO member, we believe our citizens deserve to travel freely to the UK, without visas", Romanian Foreign Affairs minister Teodor Baconschi said.

Asked how close Romania was from being included in the Visa Waiver Plan, Hillary Clinton said that the rules for the Visa Waiver are written in the legislation. According to her, the Congress has set certain standards that need be fulfilled and that Washington was working closely with the Romanian Government to help Romanian citizens meet these standards. If Romanians know the rules and met the standards, the steps could be accelerated and the percentage of granted visas would increase, in order to fulfil the demands of the American Congress.

Clinton underlined the decision to work on this project, but following the Congress' demands. In this sense, she talked about the two governments' joint campaign to help Romanian citizens know the rules better and meet the requests.