President advises EU Ambassador to facilitate Schengen visas local office in 3 months

…says “it’s nonsense!” Guyanese must endure 3-day travel to Suriname for processing

By Jarryl Bryan

The European Union-Guyana Chamber of Commerce was launched on Wednesday, carrying with it expectations of increased trade between Guyana and Europe and more ease of travel, after concern was expressed that visas for Guyanese to travel to the EU still have to be processed in Suriname.
The launching occurred at the home of outgoing EU High Commissioner to Guyana, Fernando Ponz Canto. During the launch, much was said about trade between Guyana and Europe, with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EuroChambers Ben Butters describing Guyana as a country that punches above its weight.

“It’s important to us that European businesses have a platform whereby they can contribute to the commercial relations between the EU and other countries around the world. Other important economies. And I would include Guyana among those economies.”
“It’s certainly not the largest country [Guyana] in the world, but it really punches above its weight as a trading partner [with] the EU, which really shows that for a country of less than one million citizens, it’s commercially and economically very dynamic,” Butters said.
There are issues, however, with ease of travel, which was highlighted when the chambers’ steering committee facilitator Manniram Prashad took the podium. He pointed out that Guyanese businessmen wanting to travel to the EU, still have to process their travel documents in Suriname.
President Dr Irfaan Ali paid attention to the calls of the Guyanese business community, using part of his feature address to urge the EU to accelerate the setting up of an office in Guyana to process visas to the EU.
“The request that Manniram made is an important request. And it’s not a luxury for the EU anymore, to take their time and grant us that facility. I think that the EU must understand that it is in their strategic interest to have that facility here in Guyana, within the next three months,” Ali said.
“And we have to find where we can get it done in the next three months, which embassy is in a position to get it done in the next three months, what you want us to do to help you get it done in the next three months and get it done! We can’t have our people going to Suriname to spend three days to get a travel document to come back. It’s nonsense! Absolutely ridiculous.”

Visas
Afterwards, High Commissioner Ponz Canto in an interview with this publication acknowledged that the request for an office in Guyana to process visa requests to Europe, is a reasonable one and is, in fact, being addressed by the EU.
“On the question of visas, I personally agree that we should move to facilitate visas for the Guyanese. In fact, we have already been working on that even before His Excellency mentioned it today, rightfully so.”
“We were trying to contemplate possibilities that could range from perhaps, and this very hypothetical, bringing some officials here from time to time, so that people wouldn’t have to travel to Paramaribo to get visas. Or signing some kind of agreement,” Ponz Canto said.
He cautioned, however, that the granting of Schengen visas is subject to individual member countries, not to the EU as a whole. As such, he noted that the EU doesn’t have the power to grant the visas. He also expressed the hope that they can reach a point of visa-free travel at some point in the future.
“The problem, and I need to be very clear on that, the Schengen visa is not under our responsibilities. It is a responsibility of the member states of the European Union, not the institutions of the EU that we represent. We cannot give the visas ourselves, but we can help and we’re trying to help, facilitate the process.”
“Of course, I would be very happy if in the longer term, we arrive at a point where we have visa liberalisation so that visas are not necessary for Guyanese to come to Europe, but also for the Europeans are not necessary to come to Guyana,” he said.
According to Ponz Canto, there is a reverse situation in some European countries where they have to go to another country to get visas to come to Guyana as well. He noted that they will continue to do whatever is necessary to facilitate easier travel. (G3)