Over a year has passed since the completion of the work of a special parliamentary committee that investigated the illegal visa issuance practice by German embassies in Ukraine and some other CIS countries. In September 2006, the members of the Bundestag, having prepared an 800-page report on the so-called 'visa affair' and held 32 meetings totaling 150 hours, failed to reach a consensus on the culprits of the scandal that had come to light. Nor could the 58 witnesses, including the then ministers of interior and foreign affairs, interviewed by the persistent parliamentarians, shed light on the issue. The committee's work left only 1,600 folders of documentation, 2,100 pages of interview transcripts, and 450,000 scrutinized sheets of documents.
Now, it seems, everything is coming full circle. Clemens Binninger, an expert from the CDU parliamentary group, demanded that the Federal Government make changes to the current system for issuing entry visas to Germany. In the conservative politician's view, tightening the requirements imposed by German embassies on visa applicants should be a logical consequence of the parliamentary committee's work last year. Binninger considers it necessary to create a unified database as soon as possible, which will include all names of inviting individuals and legal entities, as well as information on those invited to Germany. As the CDU representative proposes, not only all 185 German embassies and consulates but also special service employees should have access to this database. Through joint efforts, Binninger is confident, it will be possible to prevent the influx of illegal immigrants and potential terrorists.
Currently, German diplomatic missions issue approximately 2.5 million visas annually. Particular attention, according to the Christian Democrats' proposals, should be paid to 'problematic' countries. Specifically, this involves increasing the number of specialists working with visa application documents from the current 14 to 50 people.
The CDU is confident that such a practice will be even more effective than the work of the police and customs in identifying illegal immigrants in border areas. CDU member of parliament Reinhard Grindel cites the experience gained by the German side during the past FIFA World Cup. On the eve of the world sports festival, special service employees were seconded to the embassies of the participating countries – Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Iran, Togo, and Tunisia – who indeed detected over 3,000 forged documents, which accounted for almost a third of all submitted visa applications.
The proposed innovations will not please foreign travel companies that have so far specialized in facilitating the issuance of visas to Germany. The conservatives' proposals stipulate that a visa applicant must personally appear for an interview at the embassy and can no longer entrust this to a representative of a travel agency. Bundestag member Hans-Peter Uhl, an expert on domestic policy from the CDU/CSU faction, believes that the ideas of the 'blacks' are unlikely to be met with hostility by their coalition partners from the social democratic camp. After all, in his view, the previous 'red-green' government of the country was to blame for the revealed abuses.