ELDR Focus Year

Through this campaign against visas, young liberals from all over Europe showed support for the freedom of movement within the European continent. We consider borders have become less important in today's world, and in order to build more democratic and stable societies on our continent, young people should have the opportunity to travel and study abroad freely.

<font color="#000080">PHOTO : 'We are now perceived as cheap, unqualified labor force, but we know that by completing our studies in an advanced educational system we can change this reality into a better one for us and for our country', declared Eugen Spataru, President of OT-AMN, during a street action against visa regime organized on February 13th.<font color="#000080">

With these demonstrations we wanted to raise the awareness of the national governments on this problem. Young liberals approached national governments with open letter, asking the governments to start the liberalisation of the visa regimes with the final goal of complete abolishment of student and tourist visas.

<font color="#000080">PHOTO : Also in Sarajevo young people gathered on February 13th to advocate publicly, for the abolishment of visas for students and tourists, as a way to accelerate the rythm of reforms and development of the region.

First fully fledged LYMEC campaign turned out to be a huge success in many European countries. The campaign was featured on several newspaper covers in Europe, from The Netherlands to Serbia. Yet unseen media coverage of LYMEC's event has resulted in public response of some government officials, which is what this campaign aimed to do.

<font color="#000080">PHOTO : 'We don't want to close our borders to education. We want students from Belarus, Ukraine or Balkan countries gain the same privileges in travelling and studying abroad as we have now', stated Kamil Wiszowaty, President of Young Center during a similar street action organized in Krakow, Poland.

The biggest street actions took place in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Skopje and Chisinau gathering hundreds of participants and many representatives of European media. Leader of the campaign Slaven Klobucar participated on the street actions in Belgrade, where the turnout of media was impressive. LYMEC's street action and campaign has been covered by all TV stations as the main event of the day and on cover page of Serbia's most prestige newspapers 'Danas'

<font color="#000080">PHOTO : In Belgrade, young liberals gather in front of the Embassy of Austria and symbolically stood in lines holding tags of European countries whose citizens have limited mobility to travel across Europe.

The street action in Belgrade was held symbolical in front of the Austrian embassy, where a huge line of people waiting for visas is something that can be seen each day. Prior to the street action, Slaven Klobucar attended LYMEC's round table with Petar Djordjevic (CYA), Dusan Gamser (CA) and Olja Homa (Civic Pact). The round table and the street action was attended by many organisations that are not LYMEC organisations, such as Liberal Democrat Party youth, Civic Pact for SEE, Student Union of Serbia, AEEGEE and Fractal.



More about the campaign, and the press clips can be found on our 'No Visa' web site : www.lymec.org/novisa Photos can be found in the gallery!