Brussels, 31 July 2009

Following the opening of a dialogue between the European Commission and five Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) in 2008, citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and the FYR of Macedonia should be granted visa free travels to the European Union’s Schengen area from January 2010 proposed the European Commission on 15th July. “It is a historic step in our relations with the Western Balkan countries” said EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot when presenting the proposal together with Enlargement Commissioner Oli Rehn. The proposal will have to be formally approved by the EU’s 27 Justice and Home Affairs Ministers most likely in October. While welcoming the announced visa free travel for three WB countries, the European Movement regrets that the same dialogue on visa liberalisation was not opened with Turkey.

The European Movement takes note of this decision which it had asked for several times in the past, especially during the Ljubljana Congress “Civil Society Organisations challenge public authorities” on 16th-18th April 2009. It is a great step towards freedom of movement in Europe, but the European Movement regrets that the decision of ending visa requirements was not applied to the rest of the Western Balkan countries and Turkey too, as this move can be seen as marginalising the other countries in the region and alienating Turkey, which opened negotiations in 1963 for EU accession. Many organisations, like JEF for instance, reacted when the EU Commission proposed the move, as there are fears the decision will create two classes of citizens in the Western Balkans (http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/eu-balkan-visa-deal-slated-anti-muslim/article-184040).

It is nevertheless important to point out the fact that the five countries received so called Roadmaps, when the dialogue was opened with the EU, containing technical criteria for the visa liberalisation process (legislation, biometric passports, security of borders, etc.) and that the decision to grant visa free travels “is not a matter of a simple political decision” said Mr. Rehn. The decision was made after EU experts travelled to the five countries and reached the decision that so far only these three countries had fulfilled the criteria needed which led to the proposition.

The European Movement wishes to encourage the European Commission to come up with identical initiatives on visa free travels in the Western Balkans as soon as possible. There is hope for a very fast solution for two other countries as Commissioner Rehn stated that “it is our common goal that Albania and Bosnia could follow their neighbours soon, if the authorities put their full weight behind it”, as neither of these countries have biometric passports which is a sine qua none condition, but the European Movement regrets the fact that according to Mr. Barrot, “there are no current plans to loosen visa restrictions on citizens of Turkey”. Turkey is a full partner of the European Union and a candidate country, and should be treated as such. The European Movement invites the European Union to start a dialogue with Turkey as soon as possible, based on clear technical criteria in the Roadmap and applying the same standards as for the five Western Balkans countries.