Timeline: Visa Liberalization
Here is a timeline of key events in that the led to the inclusion of Bosnia and Albania in the so-called white Schengen list, allowing its citizens visa free travel into Europe.
June 2003
In June 2003, in the Thessaloniki summit, the European Union recognizes the need to liberalize visas with the Western Balkans countries.
January 1, 2008
The European Union, four years after the Thessaloniki summit eases visa application procedures for professionals in the Western Balkans.
June 3, 2008
Than European Commission deputy-president Franco Frattini presents the visa roadmap in Tirana. The fulfillment of the criteria of the roadmap would allow Western Balkan countries to join the white Schengen list.
Dec 16, 2009
Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbian citizens are granted right to travel free into the Schengen zone without a visa. Decision for Bosnia and Albania pushed for 2010.
May 27, 2010
The European Commission adopts a proposal enabling citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to travel to Schengen countries without needing a short-term visa.
October 7, 2010
The European Parliament approves the visa liberalization report for Bosnia and Albania, with 538 votes in favour and 47 against
November 8, 2010
European Union interior ministers scrap visas for citizens of Albania and Bosnia, allowing them to travel to Schengen countries.
Latest Headlines
Albania Risks Visa-Free Regime with VIP Citizenship
EU Visa Talks With Kosovo May Start January
UK Serbs Lobby British MPs for End to Visas
Albania Asylum Seekers Repatriated from Belgium
Belgium Sees Spike in Asylum Seekers From Albania
Brussels Subjects Balkan Visa Deal to Scrutiny
Albania Sees Surge in Demand for Biometric Passports
EU Proposes Mechanism to Suspend Visa-Free Regime
Asylum-Seekers’ Flight Poses Test for Macedonia
Serbia to Curb Exodus of Asylum-Seekers
Background
Focus on Albania
Albania Could Pay Price for Visa-Free Travel
While travel agents gear up to cash in on Albanians traveling westwards, experts say the outflow of currency may harm the struggling local economy.
Kosovo’s Isolation Creates Dilemma For Albania
Albanians Still In Dark About EU Travel Terms
Albania’s Long Westward Journey Gets Shorter
Border Crackdown Fails to Deter Albanian Migrants
Albania: New Year's New Visa Regime
Focus on Kosovo
Kosovo Ready for Visa-Free Regime, Pristina Officials Say
Kosovo’s government stresses that it has fulfilled the criteria set by the European Commission on visa liberalisation, as it gears up for an expected EC mission in December.
Kosovo’s Isolation Creates Dilemma For Albania
Kosovo's Visa Liberalisation On Hold
Kosovo’s Educated Elite Shun Call to Return Home
Kosovars Turn Blind Eye to Fake Foreign Marriages
Thousands of Kosovars Face Expulsion to Forgotten Homeland
Kosovo Visa Liberalisation Process 'to Start Soon'
Olli Rehn: Visa-Free Travel Will Follow Reforms
