Eurasia Press & News
A European Parliament, EP, committee supports the call of special rapporteur for visa issues, MEP Tanja Fajon, for the acceleration of visa liberalisation for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, once the two countries meet established criteria.
Members of the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs also supported Fajon’s proposal to start a visa dialogue with Kosovo.
MEP’s voted in favour of Fajon’s report late on Monday, with one vote against and two abstentions.
They approved a compromise amendment to add Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, to the list of visa-free states, with a footnote, stating that this would only occur after a positive assessment by the European Commission, EC, is approved by the EU Council.
“I am happy to see […] strong support in the EP for the acceleration of visa liberalisation for BiH and Albania, which made significant progress in the last few months”, Fajon said in a statement.
“We sent tonight a strong message to the European Commission and Council that the EU should allow free travel to the citizens of these two countries to the Schengen area as soon as possible,” she added.
On July 14, the EC proposed the lifting of EU visa restrictions on citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The three states’ nationals will likely enjoy visa-free travel to the EU from January 1, 2010.
Albania and Bosnia were excluded from the first wave of visa liberalisation, because the EC found they had not fulfilled the necessary benchmarks.
The EP committee also supported Fajon’s argument that the EC should, within the limits of its competence, and in light of UNSCR 1244/99, start a visa dialogue with Kosovo.
”Kosovo should not stay a black hole in the map of the western Balkans,” Fajon said.
The EP will vote, provisionally, on Fajon’s draft report on visa liberalisation for the western Balkans in a plenary session on November 12. However, under the current institutional framework, the EC is not obliged to obey EP decisions.
