Visa Free Travel to EU From 19 December

European Parliament

The European Parliament has endorsed the prospect of visa-free travel for Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian nationals, and has called for visa liberalisation for Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina by next year.

The Parliament also insisted on the launch of a similar 'road-map' process leading to visa facilitation and then liberalisation for Kosovo.

The EU Council will most likely endorse the decision at a December meeting of heads of states and governments of EU member states. On 30 November, EU interior ministers will give the final green light, which would allow visa-free travel from 19 December.

In July, the European Commission proposed lifting the visa regime for nationals from the three countries and asked the decision to enter into force on 1 January, 2010.

Last week Slovenia asked for the implementation of the decision to be accelerated. The initiative was widely supported, and as result interior ministers will avoid mentioning the date when the decision will enter into force. With this, citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia will be able to travel to the Schengen group of countries, by December 19.

The European parliament also called for visa liberalisation for Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the European Commission excluded those two countries in July’s proposal due to lack of progress in meeting key benchmarks.

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Wednesday that if two countries make substantial progress in the required fields then the Commission “would make the same proposal by mid 2010”.