European Forum

Macedonia ready for visa free travel to the EU, Albania and Bosnia still far away

On the 25 of May the European Commission (EC) presented its assessment on the progress of Western Balkans countries in fulfilling the conditions for visa-free travel to the EU. According to the report, only EU membership candidate Macedonia has met all necessary conditions for its citizens to be allowed to travel visa-free into the EU.

The commission's criteria include document security, illegal migration including readmission, public order and security, external relations and fundamental rights. Serbia and Montenegro are said to meet most benchmarks set by the EC, but both have fully complied only with the requirements regarding document security, while for the remaining criteria they have met a large majority of benchmarks. Albania and Bosnia received the lowest grade on all points and do not yet fully meet any of the benchmarks, while for Kosovo was not included in the assessment, which is possible a consequence of the fact that five EU countries have not recognised Kosovo. According to the European Stability Initiative (ESI), Kosovo should have defiantly been included as well, as benchmarks set by the EC would be a powerful instrument to improve policing, border controls and rule of law.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn has repeatedly said he hoped the bloc's member states could take a decision on visa-free travel for the most advanced countries in the course of the year. Under that scenario, Macedonians could travel to the EU without visas as of next year. Visa free travel is an important political issue in the region. Hoping to avoid another surge in nationalism and fend off anti-European resentment among their population, Western Balkan countries are viewing elimination of visa barriers with the EU as a growing priority, diplomats from applicant countries told a news source. To date, Croats are the only western Balkan citizens who can travel visa-free to the EU.

Source: EUobserver and EURactive