Visas: facilitating procedures for members of the Olympic family taking part in the 2004 Games in Athens

PURPOSE : to establish a temporary derogation from the rules relating to visas for members of the Olympic family for the 2004 Games. COMMUNITY MEASURE : Council Regulation 1295/2003/EC relating to measures envisaged to facilitate the procedures for applying and issuing visas for members of the Olympic family taking part in the 2004 Olympic or Paralympic Games in Athens. CONTENT : This Regulation establishes specific provisions introducing a temporary derogation from certain provisions of the Schengen acquis concerning the procedures for applying for and issuing visas as well as for the uniform format for visas for members of the Olympic family for the duration of the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Apart from these specific provisions the relevant provisions of the Schengen acquis remain in force. A visa may be issued only where the person concerned: - has been designated by one of the responsible organisations and accredited by the Organising Committee of the 2004 Olympic Games and/or Paralympic Games; - holds a valid travel document authorising the crossing of external borders; - has not been identified for non-admission; - is not deemed liable to undermine public order, national security or the international relations of any of the Member States. If the person concerned does not meet the latter two conditions, the services responsible for issuing visas may issue a visa with limited territorial validity. The visa issued will be a uniform short-stay, multiple entry visa authorising a stay of 90 days for the duration of the Games. There are provisions filing the application and the form of the visas as well as for cancellation of a visa. The processing and issuing of the visas will not give rise to any fees being charged by the services responsible for issuing the visa. In addition: - not later than four months after the close of the Paralympic Games, Greece must transmit to the Commission a report on the various aspects of the implementation of the Regulation. - the Commission will draw up an assessment of the functioning of the derogation in respect of the issue of visas to members of the Olympic family. It will draft the evaluation report early enough for the experience gained during the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Athens to be taken into account by the Italian authorities for the organisation of the Winter Olympic Games which will be held in Turin in 2006. ENTRY INTO FORCE : 11/08/2003.