On Wednesday evening, 21 March, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioners for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, and Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, hailed Kosovo's ratification of the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro.
"The ratification today of the Border Demarcation Agreement with Montenegro, by the Assembly of Kosovo, represents a real achievement, a welcome and concrete progress, very much in the spirit of good neighbourly relations as well as the new Commission Strategy for the Western Balkans", Mogherini, Hahn and Avramopoulos said in a joint press release. The Kosovan deputies voted on the demarcation with 80 votes in favour and 11 against. Earlier in the day, tear gas that was sprayed in the hemicycle had delayed the vote (see EUROPE 11986).
Mogherini and the commissioners stated that this ratification is also the fulfilment of "one of the key criteria for Kosovo's visa liberalisation". "As President Juncker said during his recent visit to Kosovo (see EUROPE 11971), it is a crucial step towards visa liberalisation which will first and foremost benefit the people", they added.
On the second criterion to be fulfilled to obtain visa liberalisation – strengthening progress in the fight against organised crime and corruption – the assessment of this "continues (...) in the light of the latest information provided by the Kosovo authorities", the three EU representatives stated.
Mogherini, Hahn and Avramopoulos underlined that the EU expected all parties in Kosovo "to continue the hard work and successful efforts to achieve visa-free travel for the people of Kosovo and in the interest of the region".
Kosovo's President Hashim Thaçi said on Twitter that the vote was the "final condition" for people of Kosovo to travel freely in Europe. "Now the ball rests with the EU Commission to work with us on pushing the necessary steps so Kosovar kids break chains of decades of isolation", he added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)