Albania, Bosnia urged faster reforms on visa liberalization process

BRUSSELS, Oct 21 – Albania and Bosnia must catch up on the reforms to qualify for a short-stay visa waiver like those given to FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro, members of the European Parliament’s committee on civil liberties said earlier this week.
The European Commission will report on the two countries’ progress early in 2010, and also start a dialogue on visas with Kosovo, the MEPs said.
The parliamentarians said that the visa liberalization dialogue places all countries on an equal footing, without any discrimination, and that the same criteria should apply to all countries concerned.
The European Commission earlier proposed that short-stay (less than three months) visa requirements be waived for FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro, but Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina did not qualify.
Committee members said that both should catch up as soon as possible, without lowering the standards common to all.
They said, however, that Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina had made further progress since the European Commission published its last assessment.
A European Parliament media statement said that MEPs had approved a compromise amendment to add Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the list of visa-free countries, albeit with a footnote saying that the visa exemption would take effect only after a positive assessment by the EC is approved by the European Council.
Both countries provisionally will remain on the list of those whose citizens require a visa.
Lawmakers said that the European Commission should also start a “visa dialogue” with Kosovo, so as to establish a roadmap for visa facilitation and liberalization similar to those established with the Western Balkan countries.
They said that that the visa liberalization process should serve as a reference for defining relations with the eastern partners, and particularly with Moldova, where a “significant democratic shift” had taken place.
The committee adopted a report on the issue by lawmaker Tanja Fajon, which will be put to a plenary vote at the November 12, 2009 European Parliament sitting.