Bulgaria, Romania, the European Commission and Canada held political consultations on visa reciprocity in Brussels. The meeting , hosted by the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs, and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, included the Canadian Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, John McCallum, Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Rumen Alexandrov, Bulgarian Deputy Interior Minister Philip Gounev, and the Head of the Romanian Prime Minister’s Chancellery Ioan Dragoș Tudorache.

The Bulgarian side firmly stated that the abolition of visas for Bulgarian citizens for Canada is among the government’s priorities. We consider the implementation of the visa regime for Bulgarians as unjustified unequal treatment, which is not consistent with the achieved level of bilateral relations with Canada. Bulgaria and Canada are NATO allies, sharing common values and cooperating successfully within international organizations.

Reciprocity goes beyond the specific visa policies and affects the overall EU-Canada relations, which are aimed at reaching the level of strategic partnership with the negotiation of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). We consider the conclusion of CETA and the achievement of full visa reciprocity as one whole process. We expect that by the October EU-Canada Summit our Canadian partners will present a clear timetable for the removal of visa restrictions for Bulgarian citizens.
Bulgaria thanked the Commission for its constructive engagement in the dialogue with Canada. We believe that the Commission will take all necessary steps to ensure that the Bulgarian citizens will also be able to benefit from the visa-free travel to Canada.