PRAGUE, Czech Republic, March 16 (UPI) -- Czech officials in Prague said they see progress in talks with Canadian diplomats over the requirement for Czechs to have visas.
Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman Filip Kanda told the CTK news agency talks Monday between the two countries and European Commission representatives showed some consensus.
"Both sides have agreed that return to the visa-free state should be the result of the process," he said.
Prague raised a diplomatic protest last year when Canada announced Czechs would require a visa because of a surge in refugee applications. Canada does not require visas from any other European Union country.
Canada obliged a Czech demand it open a visa office in its embassy in Prague and agreed to draft a "road map" for the Czechs to eventually drop the visa requirement, although that hasn't materialized, Kanda said.
Before Canada imposed the visa restriction in September, 2,172 Czechs in Canada filed for refugee status. That number fell to 30 after the new requirement, the report said.
