Visa victory?

During a visit to Estonia, US president George W Bush promised to work to modify his country's Visa Waiver Program to make it easier for citizens of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to visit the US visa-free.

"I am pleased to announce that I am going to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our Visa Waiver Program," Bush told a news conference on the eve of a NATO summit in neighboring Latvia. "It's a way to make sure that nations like Estonia qualify more quickly for the program and at the same time strengthen the program's security components," he added.

Several CEE countries, and Poland in particular, have long pressured the US to ease the restrictions within the program so that they could be included. With the exception of Greece, all of the "old" EU member states are included in the program. Of the 10 members which joined in 2004, only Slovenia has qualified.

Many Poles believe it is unfair that while US citizens can visit Poland for up to 90 days visa-free, Poles must go through a rigorous and sometimes humiliating vetting process before being granted a visa to visit the US. Polish diplomats have also pointed out that Poland is one of the US' closest allies in Europe, sending troops to Iraq to help with the US' mission there. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia have also sent troops to Iraq.

According to US law, visas may only be waived when a country has a low rate of visa overstays and a visa-refusal rate below three percent. Bush said the process to ease these restrictions would begin soon, and would probably involve a change to the three-percent threshold. (Reuters)