TODAY COLOMBIA – Colombia and the European Union (EU) have on Wednesday signed the agreement on visa exemption for short stays for Colombians.
“Colombia is celebrating today,” said President Santos on Twitter after signing the agreement.
The signing of the agreement marked “a historic day,” said Santos.
“Today’s event is a very important step to recover, in a certain way, our dignity, which we have lost or at least has been mistreated with the process of having to request a visa for each country in Europe every time we visited,” a visibly content Santos said.
The exemption had long been requested by Colombia, whose citizens have to go through lengthy and sometimes humiliating procedures in order to be allowed entry to the 26 countries that signed the open-border Schengen pact.
The exemption will come into force on Thursday.
While no visa is required, Colombians are still required to demonstrate on entry that they have a return ticket and the financial means or sponsor to support their stay in the “old world.”
Article first appeared at TodayColombia.com