Estonian-US visa waiver memorandum to be signed Wednesday

10.03.2008

TALLINN, Mar 10, BNS - Estonia's Interior Minister Juri Pihl and Michael Chertoff, the US secretary of homeland security, are going to sign a memorandum of mutual understanding on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

By signing the memorandum the two countries will confirm their will to deepen cooperation among their law and order enforcement agencies and tighten measures in fields related to readmission of citizens and airport and travel document security.

The exact form and details of cooperation will be agreed upon in the memorandum implementation agreements that will be concluded in coming months.

The memorandum is a prerequisite for Estonia's joining the US visa waiver program, the Interior Ministry said.

A similar deal has already been signed by the Czech Republic and Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary plan to follow suit to make it easier for their citizens to travel visa free to the United States.

This has angered the European Union's executive Commission and a number of older EU member countries whose citizens already enjoy visa-free access to US territory. They say the pact infringes on the EU's authority over visa and border policy.

The signing of bilateral pacts with individual EU states has been defended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who said the need for it arises from US legislation, and also by the signing countries who argue that they want nothing more than what older EU member states who are part of the US visa waiver scheme already have.

Citizens of 12 EU countries, among them Greece and all the countries admitted to the bloc since 2004 except Slovenia, are currently not entitled to travel visa free to the United States.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee