ATHENS (Sputnik) — Greece's First Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Nikos Ksidakis said Wednesday that he believes that the policy of issuing visas should not be politicized even amid problems in Russian-EU relations.
"We believe, that the policy of visas issuing should be reasonable, serious, transparent and shouldn't be politicized. The question of Russian citizens' entry to the European Union should be resolved in the same manner as the question of Turkish citizens visa-free travel to Europe. The EU should consider this issue seriously and in a clear way," Ksidakis said during Russian-Greek tourism forum in Athens.
He also reminded that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the session of the European Council meeting in December 2015 said that visas policy should not be used as a tool for rewarding or punishing.
Since September 2015, Russian applicants for Schengen visas have to be fingerprinted and provide other biometric data. In late April, the Greek Consulate in Moscow was unable to cope in time with the number of visa applications submitted by Russians, who planned to travel to Greece for May holidays.
