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Historical visa deal

Russia and Poland give millions of people in their border areas the right to cross the border without visa.

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One day ahead of this year´s last EU-Russia Summit, the two countries´ foreign minister signed a historical deal on local border traffic, which will give the whole population of Kaliningrad Oblast and people in the Polish Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships the right to visa-free border-crossing. The visa-free zone will include about 4,5 million people.

As BarentsObserver previously reported, the Polish-Russian deal was hammered out earlier this fall and the countries only waited for the approval from the European Parliament before the agreement could be signed. Now, the agreement only needs to be ratified by the two countries´ parliaments before coming into force.

Read also: EU makes visa exception for Kaliningrad

The deal is a major victory for both countries, and especially for Poland, which is completing its chairmanship period in the EU Council with the breakthrough in European East-West traveling.

Both the two countries have long been staunch supporters of a full-fledged opening for visa-free traveling between the EU and Russia. In a press release issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov says he hopes the deal is an important first step towards the opening of full visa-free traveling between the sides.

Read also: Experts call for more cross-border cooperation

The deal is historical also in the sense that it by far exceeds the 30 km, and exceptionally 50km, radius from the border, normally allowed by the Schengen regulations. That, however, will hardly set precedence for other border regions. Talking at the European Border Dialogues Forum in Kaliningrad in November, Polish and Russian diplomats confirmed that the Kaliningrad case has got an exceptional status and that no other European border region can expect similar traveling regimes.