DUBAI // UAE citizens may be able to travel to Europe without a visa from this spring – almost a year after the European Parliament voted in favour of waiving Schengen visa requirements for Emiratis.
“Emiratis will be the first and the UAE will be the first Arab country to have the visa waiver in the Schengen countries.
“The latest information we have from Brussels is that it may be possible by the spring time,” said Giorgio Starace, Italian ambassador to the UAE.
“Most procedures have been completed and the process should be completed soon.”
He spoke on the sidelines of a meeting about the Milan Expo 2015 on Sunday – the inaugural day of the Gulfood show.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs, pushed to get the waiver, said Mr Starace.
He said: “Italy was one of the countries that pushed for the UAE in Brussels.
“The UAE is a strategic partner of Italy both politically and economically, and this waiver will very much help increase the flow of Emiratis to Europe, and not just Italy.” Mr Starace could not specify a date for visa-free travel to start.
“It’s in the hands of Brussels, but we hope it will be in the spring,” he said.
“We hope more UAE citizens will visit and we [Italy] will be the first to take advantage of the visa waiver.”
The Milan Expo runs for six months from May.
More than 35,000 visas for Italy were issued last year from Dubai, and 12,000 from Abu Dhabi. These include UAE citizens and expatriates.
In February last year, 523 of the 577 members of the European Parliament voted to allow visa free travel for UAE citizens.
The Schengen Area consists of 26 states, including 22 of the 28 European Union member countries. They are Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Sweden.
The United Kingdom granted visa free travel to Emiratis in November 2013.
rtalwar@thenational.ae
Match info
Liverpool 3
Hoedt (10' og), Matip (21'), Salah (45 3')
Southampton 0
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MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
MATCH INFO
Europa League final
Who: Marseille v Atletico Madrid
Where: Parc OL, Lyon, France
When: Wednesday, 10.45pm kick off (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
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