Ecuador’s President Asks Spanish King for Visa Liberalization

The two leaders met during a visit to Bogotá, where they were present to attend the inauguration ceremony of Gustavo Petro, who assumed the Presidency of Colombia, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

Throughout the meeting, which lasted about half an hour, President Lasso and King Felipe VI discussed various bilateral issues, such as improving access and circulation of Ecuadorians in the European Union.

“We have touched on issues related to bilateral relations and the support that we have always offered from Spain on issues of interest to Ecuador in the European Community. Now, specifically, the elimination of the Schengen Visa for Ecuadorians,” President Lasso told Spanish international news agency EFE.

According to Lasso, the King of Spain was “very receptive”, showing his commitment to supporting Ecuador, adding that the dialogue for the elimination of the visas for Ecuadorians travelling to the Schengen Area is advancing.

Ecuador is one of the many world countries, the citizens of which need a Schengen visa in order to travel to the Schengen Area, which includes 26 European countries, among which also Spain.

Data by Schengen Visa Statistics show that in 2021, 29,480 Ecuadorians applied for a Schengen visa, the majority of them, a total of 24,175, for a Spain Schengen Visa. Given that each application costs at least €80 to file, Ecuadorians spent at least €2,358,400 on Schengen visa applications in the same year.

However, these numbers are way lower than normally, since pre-pandemic, the numbers were a few times higher. For example, in 2019, 75,840 Ecuadorians applied for a Schengen Visa, 56,834 of which applications were filed at the Spanish Embassy in Bogotá. The number of applications for 2020 and 2021 has dropped due to the closure of visa processing centres, as well as the entry bans put in place by Schengen countries in their bid to prevent the increase of Coronavirus cases in their territory.

President Lasso is not the first leader of Ecuador to seek visa-free travel to Europe for the citizens of Ecuador as his predecessor Lenín Moreno had also made such requests, but the same have not been addressed by the European leaders during Moreno’s mandate.

Now, the Lasso government hopes that the Council and the European Parliament will analyze Ecuador’s request in one of their debates in the following year.

According to Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín, the country has worked to meet some requirements in order to reach visa-liberalization with the EU, including here by issuing biometric passports and facilitating the readmission of Ecuadorians who were illegally staying in Europe.

Amongst the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the citizens of the following 23 can travel visa-free to Spain and the rest of the Schengen Area countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela.