Neighbours and Visas

Considered from the perspective of the goals of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the current EU visa policy towards the eastern neighbours of the EU appears disappointing. Support of the freedom to travel could be one of key incentives for the neighbouring countries to undertake democratic and free-market reform. The experience of travellers (tourists, business people, students, traders) changes the mindset moulded by decades of totalitarian regime. Direct contacts and first-hand perception of stable democracy at work help to learn and to apply the model of democracy, civic society, and free-market economy, and provide an important argument for that part of society which has pro-European leanings. (Introduction, fragment)