Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Fifth report on the post-visa liberalisation monitoring for the Western Balkan Countries in accordance with the Commission Statement of 8 November 2010 (Text with EEA relevance)

Since December 2009, citizens of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been able, with biometric passports, to travel visa-free to EU Member States (with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom) in accordance with Regulation 539/2001. Citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have enjoyed the same visa-free travel status since December 2010. Visa-free travel remains one of the core achievements of these countries’ European integration efforts.

In its 8 November 2010 statement to the Justice and Home Affairs Council, the Commission emphasised that each Western Balkan country had to continue implementing measures set out in its visa roadmap to maintain the integrity of the visa-free travel scheme. It established a post-visa liberalisation monitoring mechanism to evaluate the sustainability of reforms aiming to uphold the scheme’s integrity.

This is the fifth post-visa liberalisation monitoring report published since 2010. It provides an overview of the development of the post-visa liberalisation monitoring mechanism, reviews the functioning of the visa-free travel scheme and recommends reforms to prevent the recurrence of the problems that have beset this scheme since 2010.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)58: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:058:FIN

ESO: Background information: Commission reports on visa-free travel from the Western Balkans http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-commission-reports-on-visa-free-travel-from-the-western-balkans/

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