Slovakia will support the EU's introduction of a visa duty for Canadian diplomats if bilateral talks between the EU and Canada aren't successful and the EU agrees on collective measures, Slovak Ambassador to the EU Maroš Ševčovič told the TASR newswire on September 21.
“For Slovakia I can say that ... we're ready to support any measures that would help our Czech partners to overcome this situation,” said Ševčovič, referring to Canada's imposition of a duty on Czechs because of perceived ‘dumping’ of Roma.
Canada unilaterally introduced the visa duty for citizens of the Czech Republic in June, defending the decision by citing the large number of Czech (Roma) applicants for asylum. The Czech Republic, in response, introduced a visa regime for Canadian citizens who hold diplomatic and service passports.
The Czech Republic cannot introduce a blanket visa duty for all Canadian citizens as the EU has a visa-free regime with Canada. The Czechs would be able to introduce the blanket visa duty only following a unanimous decision by all EU-member countries to do the same. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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