Taiwanese passport holders would be able to enter Romania and Bulgaria under streamlined rules when the countries officially join the Schengen Area in March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The two countries are to officially become part of the Schengen Area on March 31, said Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs.
Since Jan. 11, 2011, Taiwanese passport holders have not needed visas to enter the Schengen Area — currently comprising 23 EU member states, plus Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway — as a tourist or for business purposes.
Photo: Yang Yao-ju, Taipei Times
The maximum length of stay is 90 days within a six-month period.
Taiwanese passport holders can currently enter Romania and Bulgaria visa-free for up to 90 days within a 180-day period, but after March 31, time spent in the two countries are to be included in the Schengen zone’s 90-day limit within a 180-day period, Huang said.
The Schengen-Area expansion to include Romania and Bulgaria — which have been EU members since 2007 — would also come with more streamlined border control procedures, he said.
Starting on March 31, Taiwanese passport holders arriving in Romania or Bulgaria from other Schengen countries by air or sea would no longer have to present their passports upon arrival.
This exemption applies to individuals on flights, cruises and ferries, Huang said.
Travelers entering Romania and Bulgaria from Schengen countries by road, train or bus would still have to present identification documents, he said.
The regulations for land border crossings remain unconfirmed due to Austria’s veto, the EU said.
A decision has yet to be made to determine a date for the removal of land border controls, the European Council said on its Web site.
The two countries’ integration into the Schengen Area would facilitate unrestricted movement among member countries’ approximately 400 million citizens, the EU said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its