The European Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of Taiwan’s inclusion on its Schengen visa-free list yesterday, edging the country one step closer to enjoying visa-exemption privileges in the EU.
A total of 550 members out of the 612 members in the European Parliament present at the plenary session voted for the proposal, 40 voted against and 13 abstained, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said last night.
The exemption proposal will now proceed to the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) of the EU Council for approval, a meeting scheduled for Dec. 2 and Dec. 3.
“The Republic of China [ROC] sincerely appreciates the European Parliament voting to grant our citizens Schengen visa-waiver status, a proposal MOFA has been actively working on for many years and hopes that the EU Council adopts the proposal by the end of the year,” MOFA spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.
If the JHA votes in support of the proposal, Taiwanese holding ROC passports will be able to travel to 28 European countries for short stays of up to 90 days free from visa obligations, effective 20 days after the JHA resolution is promulgated in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The 28 countries include 22 EU member states plus Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus, three countries not yet part of the Schengen area, but which maintain the same visa policy as that in the Schengen Agreement, along with three non-EU member states — Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
ROC passport holders are also entitled to visa-free entry in the UK and Ireland.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
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The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
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