During the period 24.00 - 12.00, 700 Moldovan citizens have crossed the Moldovan-Romanian border on the basis of biometric passports.
The most popular border crossing point from the EU border is Leuseni, there were registered 500 Moldovans, being followed by BCP Chisinau International Airport by 130 holders of biometric passports.
Starting with today, April 28, Republic of Moldova benefits from liberalized visa regime to EU countries. The Moldovan citizens, holders of the biometric passports, enjoy the cancellation of visas for short-term travel in the Schengen area.
The historic event for the Republic of Moldova is recorded in all checkpoints of Moldovan-Romanian border. The Border Police employees are trained to inform the fellow citizens of free movement in Europe, in order to minimize the risk of refusal of entry into the EU from the European border authorities. In this respect, to all cross-border traffic participants, especially to those who went to an European country, the border guards handed the leaflets “Your guide for free movement in the European space" developed by MFA. It contains relevant information such as the conditions of entry into the EU, the consequences of breaching EU rules, justifying documents, contact data of the embassies and consulates of the country from abroad and other useful information that should provide a traveling without any difficulties in the European area without any visa.
At occasion of entry into force of visa free regime with the EU, a Moldovan delegation, consisting of 100 persons and led by the Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, aimed to be among the first Moldovans who crossed the border, beneficiating by the facility granted. Greece was chosen as a destination for this event because it currently holds the EU presidency. The plane took off this morning from the Chisinau International Airport.
NOTE: The decision on the abolition of visas for Moldovan citizens was published in the EU Official Journal on April 8, which came into effect today, April 28, 2014. The liberalization of visas for Moldovan citizens is provided in the EU Regulation No. 539/2001 regarding the list of third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and the list of countries whose nationals are exempt from that requirement. The rules can be accessed on the website of the Official Journal of the European Union:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/RO/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ
