Brussels, 31/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - Serbian Home Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic met Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Brussels on Monday 30 May to discuss the negatives resulting from the visa liberalisation scheme put in place for Serbian citizens at the end of 2009.
Several member states have complained recently of the large number of asylum requests made by Serbian citizens, requests found for the most part to be groundless. On 24 May, at the request of these member states, the Commission proposed a safeguard clause which would allow visa exemption schemes to be temporarily suspended in the event of abuse. It was against this background that the Serbian minister set out for Malmström the efforts being made by his government to reduce the number of asylum requests. In a Serbian government press release, Dacic says that, in recent months, the number of asylum seekers has dropped. He said that the visa liberalisation was a capital asset for Serbia and one of the biggest gains that its citizens could achieve in the process of European integration, noting, however, that Serbia had huge responsibilities in this area and it promised to do all in its power to maintain the visa liberalisation scheme, for example, increasing police checks on people travelling to the EU. The commissioner encouraged Serbia to continue its efforts, her spokespersons said, and to raise awareness of its nationals of what the visas meant, that is, stays of no more than 90 days on EU soil. (S.P./transl.rt)