The following specific procedures and conditions facilitate the application for and issuing of visas to members of the Olympic family for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games organised by a Member State.
In addition, the relevant provisions of the Community acquis concerning procedures for applying for and issuing visas shall apply.
For the purposes of this Regulation:
‘Responsible organisations’ relate to measures envisaged to facilitate the procedures for applying for and issuing visas for members of the Olympic family taking part in the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games, and they mean the official organisations, in terms of the Olympic Charter, which are entitled to submit lists of members of the Olympic family to the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games with a view to the issue of accreditation cards for the Games;
‘Member of the Olympic family’ means any person who is a member of the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, International Federations, the National Olympic and Paralympic Committees, the Organising Committees of the Olympic Games and the national associations, such as athletes, judges/referees, coaches and other sports technicians, medical personnel attached to teams or individual sportsmen/women and media-accredited journalists, senior executives, donors, sponsors or other official invitees, who agree to be guided by the Olympic Charter, act under the control and supreme authority of the International Olympic Committee, are included on the lists of the responsible organisations and are accredited by the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games as participants in the [year] Olympic and/or Paralympic Games;
‘Olympic accreditation cards’ which are issued by the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in accordance with its national legislation means one of two secure documents, one for the Olympic Games and one for the Paralympic Games, each bearing a photograph of its holder, establishing the identity of the member of the Olympic family and authorising access to the facilities at which competitions are held and to other events scheduled throughout the duration of the Games;
‘Duration of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games’ means the period during which the Olympic Games and the period during which the Paralympic Games take place;
‘Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games’ means the Committee set up on by the hosting Member State in accordance with its national legislation to organise the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which decides on accreditation of members of the Olympic family taking part in those Games;
‘Services responsible for issuing visas’ means the services designated by the Member State hosting the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to examine applications and issue visas to members of the Olympic family.
A visa may be issued pursuant to this Regulation only where the person concerned:
has been designated by one of the responsible organisations and accredited by the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a participant in the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games;
holds a valid travel document authorising the crossing of the external borders, as referred to in Article 5 of the Schengen Borders Code;
is not a person for whom an alert has been issued for the purpose of refusing entry;
is not considered to be a threat to public policy, national security or the international relations of any of the Member States.
1.Where a responsible organisation draws up a list of the persons selected to take part in the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games, it may, together with the application for the issue of an Olympic accreditation card for the persons selected, file a collective application for visas for those persons selected who are required to be in possession of a visa in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 539/2001, except where those persons hold a residence permit issued by a Member State or a residence permit issued by the United Kingdom or Ireland, in accordance with Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States(1).
2.A collective application for visas for the persons concerned shall be forwarded at the same time as applications for the issue of an Olympic accreditation card to the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in accordance with the procedure established by it.
3.Individual visa applications shall be submitted for each person taking part in the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games.
4.The Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games shall forward to the services responsible for issuing visas, a collective application for visas as quickly as possible, together with copies of applications for the issue of an Olympic accreditation card for the persons concerned, bearing their full name, nationality, sex and date and place of birth and the number, type and expiry date of their travel document.
1.The visa shall be issued by the services responsible for issuing visas following an examination designed to ensure that the conditions set out in Article 3 are met.
2.The visa issued shall be a uniform, multiple-entry visa authorising a stay of not more than three months for the duration of the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games.
3.Where the member of the Olympic family concerned does not meet the conditions set out in point (c) or (d) of Article 3, the services responsible for issuing visas may issue a visa with limited territorial validity in accordance with Article 25 of this Regulation.
1.The visa shall take the form of two numbers entered on the Olympic accreditation card. The first number shall be the visa number. In the case of a uniform visa, that number shall be made up of seven (7) characters comprising six (6) digits preceded by the letter ‘C’. In the case of a visa with limited territorial validity, that number shall be made up of eight (8) characters comprising six (6) digits preceded by the letters ‘XX’(2). The second number shall be the number of the travel document of the person concerned.
2.The services responsible for issuing visas shall forward the visa numbers to the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the purpose of issuing Olympic accreditation cards.
The examination of visa applications and the issue of visas shall not give rise to any fees being charged by the services responsible for issuing visas.
Where the list of persons put forward as participants in the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games is amended before the Games begin, the responsible organisations shall inform without any delay the Organising Committee of the Member State hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games thereof so that the Olympic accreditation cards of the persons removed from the list may be revoked. The Organising Committee shall notify the services responsible for issuing visas thereof and shall inform them of the numbers of the visas in question.
The services responsible for issuing visas shall cancel the visas of the persons concerned. They shall immediately inform the authorities responsible for border checks thereof, and the latter shall without delay forward that information to the competent authorities of the other Member States.
1.The entry checks carried out on members of the Olympic family who have been issued visas in accordance with this Regulation shall, when such members cross the external borders of the Member States, be limited to checking compliance with the conditions set out in Article 3.
2.For the duration of the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games:
(a)entry and exit stamps shall be affixed to the first free page of the travel document of those members of the Olympic family for whom it is necessary to affix such stamps in accordance with Article 10(1) of the Schengen Borders Code. On first entry, the visa number shall be indicated on that same page;
(b)the conditions for entry provided for in Article 5(1)(c) of the Schengen Borders Code shall be presumed to be fulfilled once a member of the Olympic family has been duly accredited.
3.Paragraph 2 shall apply to members of the Olympic family who are third-country nationals, whether or not they are subject to the visa requirement under Regulation (EC) No 539/2001.
Reference to the ISO code of the organising Member State.