With reference to the article which appeared in the South China Morning Post, on October 23 headlined, 'Italy does a U-turn on visa entry', may I add some further considerations which may be helpful to better understand visa requirements for holders of travel documents of the SAR travelling to Italy.
When the Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini visited Hong Kong in October, 1996, while expressing (in principle) the wishes of the Italian Government to grant visa-free access to the passports of the SAR, he stated that any final decision on the topic was subject to the common position that had to be agreed upon among the European countries bound by the Schengen Agreement. As the common position eventually adopted did not envisage exemption from visa requirements for SAR passports, as of July 1, the Italian Government introduced a visa regime for holders of the mentioned document.
In any case this decision started to be enforced as of July 1. Now, with the accession on October 26, of the Italian territory to the so-called 'Schengen space', once a foreign traveller (holding, for example, a SAR passport) gets a visa from the Italian authorities, he will also be allowed visa-free access to other Schengen countries.
ALFREDO CONTE Consul Consulate General of Italy
