Georgia marked the fifth anniversary of the visa liberalization agreement with the European Union. For the past five years, Georgian biometric passport holders have been able to travel to the 26 Schengen countries, which include France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and more, for short-term travel and for purposes such as tourism, business, and visiting family members and friends.
The milestone was celebrated by Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili through a tweet published in English on his official Twitter account.
“Today marks the 5th anniversary of the visa-free regime with the EU – a historic achievement and another step on the path of Georgia’s European integration. Our government is sparing no effort to effectively implement the irreversible European election of the Georgian people, which will ultimately lead to the country’s EU membership!” the prime minister said in his tweet.
At a government meeting on Monday, the prime minister called the agreement on visa-free travel to EU member countries a great achievement for Georgia, claiming that it is a result of the Georgian government’s work and efforts.
The milestone was also celebrated by the head of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, who also noted the strength of the Georgian passport, which allows its holders to travel visa-free to 72 countries in the world and with a visa on arrival another 47 countries of the world.
“Today we mark the 5th anniversary of the visa-free regime with the EU/Schengen zone – a crucial tangible benefit for the citizens of Georgia resulting from the ever-growing EU-Georgia partnership. Georgia’s passport holds high status as it is ranked 30th in the world in 119 visa-free/visa-on-arrival countries,” the chairman said in a tweet posted on his official account.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, 645,639 Georgian citizens have made a total of 1,398,803 trips to the Schengen area over the past five years.
Due to a high number of Georgian citizens who reached the EU borders without proper documents such as valid biometric passports, health insurance, proof of accommodation and means of subsistence in the first 3+ years, in January 2021, the Georgian authorities started to carry out additional controls at all border crossings for Georgian citizens traveling to the member states of the Schengen area.
Since then, those who do not have proper papers have not been allowed to leave Georgia to prevent Georgians from being in Europe illegally, the number of which has increased significantly since 2017.
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