Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Fourth report on the post-visa liberalisation monitoring for the Western Balkan countries in accordance with the Commission statement of 8 November 2010

Since 19 December 2009, citizens of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been able, with biometric passports, to travel visa-free to the Member States of the European Union, in accordance with Regulation 539/2001. Citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have enjoyed the same visa-free travel status since 15 December 2010.

The decision to lift the visa obligation was based on a thorough assessment of these countries’ progress in fulfilling the requirements of their visa liberalisation roadmaps in areas including document security, border and migration management, asylum, the fight against organised crime and corruption, and fundamental rights related to freedom of movement. Visa-free travel remains one of the core achievements of these countries’ European integration efforts to date.

In a statement made to the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 8 November 2010, the Commission underlined that the integrity of the visa-free travel regime depended on each Western Balkan country continuing to implement the measures set out in its visa roadmap. The Commission established a post-visa liberalisation monitoring mechanism, covering all the policy areas set out in the visa roadmaps, to evaluate the sustainability of reforms seeking to uphold the integrity of the visa-free travel regime.

This is the fourth post-visa liberalisation monitoring report to be published since the Commission’s 2010 statement. It provides an overview of the development of the post-visa liberalisation monitoring mechanism, gives the Commission’s assessment of measures implemented by the Western Balkan countries on the basis of their visa roadmaps, reviews the functioning of the visa-free travel regime, and makes recommendations for reforms to prevent the recurrence of problems that have beset the visa-free travel regime since 2010.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)836: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:836:FIN

---