http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20160905IPR41321/civil-liberties-meps-back-visa-waivers-for-kosovo-and-georgia
Current page:: Civil liberties MEPs back visa waivers for Kosovo and Georgia Civil liberties MEPs back visa waivers for Kosovo and Georgia : Plans to grant citizens of Kosovo and Georgia the right to travel to the Schengen area without a visa were backed by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs on Monday. The Committee approved the visa waiver for Kosovo by 25 votes to 24 with 2 abstentions, and that for Georgia by 44 votes to 5. Kosovo Following the abolition of visas for the citizens of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia in 2009 and for Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2010, Kosovo was left isolated as the only Balkan country whose citizens still needed a visa to travel to the EU. It started the visa liberalisation process in 2012, four years after all the other countries in its neighbourhood. One of the 95 criteria the country should fulfil before obtaining the visa waiver is to ratify the border agreement with Montenegro, still pending. Parliament´s rapporteur for the proposal, Tanja Fajon (S <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96911/TANJA_FAJON_home.html> &D, SI), believes that lifting the visa requirements will send a powerful signal to Kosovars, so that the country does not lose its EU accession hopes and aspirations and thus pursues its stability and democratic reform efforts. Regarding the non-recognition issue (five EU countries do not recognize Kosovo), the draft legislation states that the abolition of visas does not affect the individual positions of the EU member states on Kosovo’s status. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "serbia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/serbia. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
