Division 1.2 Scope of the Agreement

Article 2 of the Agreement provides that:

‘1.

The visa facilitations provided in this Agreement shall apply to citizens of Armenia only insofar as they are not exempted from the visa requirement by the laws and regulations of the Union or the Member States, this Agreement or other international agreements.

2.

The national law of Armenia or of the Member States or the Union law shall apply to issues not covered by the provisions of this Agreement, such as the refusal to issue a visa, recognition of travel documents, proof of sufficient means of subsistence and the refusal of entry and expulsion measures.’.

The Agreement, without prejudice to Article 10 thereof, does not affect the existing rules on visa obligations and visa exemptions. For instance, Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001^f1 allows Member States to exempt from the visa requirement, among other categories of persons, civilian air and sea crews.

In that context, it should be added that in accordance with Article 21 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders^f2, all Schengen Member States must recognise long-stay visas and residence permits issued by each other as valid for short stays on each other's territories. All Schengen Member States accept residence permits, D visas and short-stay visas of Schengen associated countries for entry and short stay and vice versa.

Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council^f3 (the ‘Visa Code’) applies to all issues not covered by the Agreement, such as the determination of the Schengen Member State responsible for processing a visa application, the motivation of a refusal to issue a visa, the right to appeal against a negative decision and the general rule of the personal interview with the visa applicant and providing all relevant information in relation to the visa application. Furthermore, Schengen rules (i.e. the refusal of entry in the territory, proof of sufficient means of subsistence etc.) and national law (i.e. the recognition of travel documents, expulsion measures etc.) continue also to apply to issues which are not covered by the Agreement.

Even if the conditions provided for in the Agreement are met, for example, proof of documentary evidence regarding the purpose of the journey for the categories provided for in Article 4 is provided by the visa applicant, the issuance of the visa can still be refused if the conditions laid down in Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council^f4 (‘Schengen Borders Code’) are not fulfilled, i.e. the person is not in possession of a valid travel document, an alert in the Schengen Information System (SIS) has been issued, the person is considered to be a threat to public policy, internal security, etc.

Other flexibilities in the issuing of visas provided for by the Visa Code continue to apply. For instance, multiple-entry visas for a long period of validity — up to five years — can be issued to categories of persons other than those mentioned in Article 5 of the Agreement, if the conditions provided for in Article 24 of the Visa Code are met. In the same way, the provisions contained in Article 16(5) and (6) of the Visa Code allowing waiver or reduction of the visa fee will continue to apply.