Union to ease visa access for Balkans

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 23/02/06

European Union officials are confident they will be able to ease visa restrictions for the Balkan states this year despite major political and technical hurdles.

With the EU on the verge of easing the visa regimes for Russia and Ukraine, officials are keen to give the same right to potential EU members in the Western Balkans.

The Commission has proposed easing visa requirements for students and researchers.

In a report last November the International Crisis Group warned that the EU's visa regimes were "fostering resentment, inhibiting progress on trade, business, education and more open civil societies" in the region.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro are now being asked to step up border controls, improve the security of travel documents and to implement readmission agreements with EU member states, in order to take advantage of the offer.

But major obstacles remain, with some criticising Balkan states' governments for not taking EU demands seriously enough and viewing visa facilitation as a purely political decision.

With the final status of Montenegro and Kosovo unclear, problems may arise there too.

The Serbian and Montenegrin authorities are reportedly wary of investing in new and improved travel documents with the possibility of the state union disintegrating.

But the EU offer has received a warm reception among some groups.

According to the Citizens' Pact for South East Europe, a group demanding greater freedom of movement, the EU's offer is positive, but could go further.

"Of course this is welcome, but it is not enough" said Rajko Bozic, we are quite sure that there is a possibility to go further."

The EU has been called upon to extend the offer when foreign ministers gather for an informal meeting in Salzburg on 10-11 March.

Article reports that European Union officials were confident they would be able to ease visa restrictions for the Balkan states in the course of 2006 despite major political and technical hurdles.

International Crisis Group: EU Visas and the Western Balkans (Europe Report, No.168, November 2005) http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/europe/balkans/168-eu-visas-and-the-western-balkans.aspx

European Commission: DG Enlargement: Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/countries/index_en.htm

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