Eurasia Press & News
Bosnia and Herzegovina legs behind all other Balkan countries in implementing reforms that would enable establishment of visa-free regime with EU countries, officials and media said on Tuesday.
“Macedonia and Serbia has gone much further in the implementation of conditions for a visa-free regime. Bosnia and Herzegovina is lagging behind, although it had the same preconditions, and I am disappointed because of that,” Bosnia’s top western envoy Valentin Inzko told local media.
Bosnia still has to implement 27 agreed measures in order to obtain visa-free regime and although 18 of those conditions are in the process of preparation or implementation, officials say it is highly unlikely that they will be finalised any time soon.
This means that Bosnia will miss another train for visa-free regime with the EU member countries and may easily become – together with Albania – the last Balkan countries whose citizens will need to undergo expensive and complex visa procedures to travel to the EU.
On May 18, the EU is expected to publish a new report on the status of visa-free regime reforms among Balkan countries. According to several western diplomats and media reports, the EU will welcome some improvements made by Bosnian leaders, but will stress that there is still much to do. The list of remaining 27 conditions includes better legislation on border and weapons controls.
The EU’s report is expected to be discussed by WEU’s Working group on Balkans by the end of the month, which will be the basis for EU to make its official recommendations in June. According to EU sources and media reports, Macedonia and Montenegro can expect to get a green light, the issue of Serbia is still being discussed, while Bosnia and Albania seem to be far off the required stage.
