EU:Albania Not In Schengen White List

TIRANA, July 15 – What Albanians have been dreaming of did not turn into a reality Wednesday.
Albania was not among the three Balkan countries allowed visa-free travel to EU nations starting Jan. 1.
The European Commission said Wednesday those countries would be only the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro and Serbia while Albania and Bosnia should likely expect it next year.
The proposal enables the citizens of these three countries to travel to the Schengen countries with the new biometric passports.
The European Commission’s long standing commitment to visa free travel for the people of the region did not include Albania. Lack of biometric passports and border control were the main items Tirana had yet to comply with based on the road map.
Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina still need to continue their efforts to get a positive recommendation from the Commission.
In Albania and in Bosnia and Herzegovina shortcomings still exist in the institutional framework to fight against organized crime and corruption, in addressing weaknesses in the procedure for delivering passports, and in the areas of border and migration management.
The Commission remains committed to visa liberalization for the citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina too. However these countries have not yet fulfilled the conditions to be included in today’s proposal. If the pace of reforms is maintained and if all the conditions are fulfilled, the Commission could envisage making a new proposal including these countries by mid-2010.
In Tirana, Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha assured all that, “Albania is concluding the process of fulfilling all the required conditions and criteria, especially the biometric passports,” which, he said, Albanians were rushing to get and their number likely to be about or above more than 200,000 by the end of the year.
Lutfi Dervishi, an analyst in Albania, conceded that the Brussels decision was political but also based on technical criteria.
It is true that Albania is behind FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro in supplying its citizens with the biometric passports. That has been a main criterion from the EU.
“With a maximum commitment and will for reforms there is no reason why Albanians would not profit from the visa-free regime in the Schengen area. It’s a sin we are not in the first wave of the countries profiting from the EU decision,” he said.
Basha said that everything was on target as they had claimed – a visa free regime during the first year of the second mandate.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama was harsh, accusing Prime Minister Sali Berisha and his government, “ơnd also due to the elections without standards Albania is more isolated than it was before June 28.”
EU officials said the move would end a requirement in place for nearly two decades.
The proposal still needs the backing of all 27 EU member states, which could come in October, paving the way for visa requirements to be dropped Jan. 1, said EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot.
“This is an historic moment in our relations with countries of the western Balkans,” Barrot told reporters. “This will allow for far closer and more frequent relations between citizens of those three countriesŢ and the European Union.
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn added “It is our goal, and our firm conviction, that Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina will follow suit soon. The road map is still valid, and it is still perfectly doable if the authorities of the countries put their full will into delivering now. If this progress continues apace, I believe both countries will soon catch up with their neighbors. If all the conditions are fulfilled, the Commission could envisage making a new proposal, which would include them, by mid-2010.”
Barrot said that while FYROM had fulfilled all the EU’s conditions, Serbia and Montenegro still had to carry out measures to enhance their management of borders, migration policy, and the fight against organized crime.
FYROM has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005, but has still not received a date for opening entry talks due to a name dispute with neighboring Greece. Montenegro and Serbia also are seeking membership, but the latter has been blocked by a Dutch requirement that it capture its last two war-crime suspects.
Europe’s newest nation, Kosovo, has not yet been included in the visa liberalization program due to security concerns, EU officials said.
Citizens of Serbia, FYROM and Montenegro enjoyed visa-free travel to Western Europe for 40 years as part of the six member Yugoslav federation – the only communist country that allowed its citizens to travel freely abroad.
Visas were first introduced as the federation was breaking up in 1991. Slovenia, which is now an EU member, was the first to be removed from the list, and Croatia followed.
Critics say the strict visa requirements hurt the EU’s own plans to integrate the region into the bloc.
Granting visa free travel is a cornerstone of the EU’s integration policy for the Western Balkans. Facilitating people to people contacts enhances business opportunities and gives the possibility for the people of the region to get to know the EU better.
The Commission had launched a dialogue on visa liberalization with the Western Balkans countries. On the basis of the road map presented by the Commission, the countries have made important progress in improving passport security, in strengthening border controls, in reinforcing the institutional framework to fight organized crime and corruption, as well as in external relations and fundamental rights.