EU ambassador downplays hopes of fast change to Canadian visa regime

The Czech ambassador to the European Union says that there are no reasons for strong hopes that Canada will lift its visa requirement for Czech citizens soon. Milena Vicenová made the comments in an interview with the business daily, E15. She said that the European Commission was preparing a report setting out its stand if Canada did not change its stand. Prague had a simple stance that visas be lifted or the EU take retaliatory steps such as imposing visas on Canadians, she said. Canada reimposed visas on Czechs in July 2009 following a wave of asylum applications, many of them from Roma. It has said it might drop the demand but only after its generous asylum policies are amended and that could take several years.