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Image header Agence Europe
Europe Daily Bulletin No. 9182
Contents Publication in full By article 15 / 48
GENERAL NEWS / (eu) eu/jha council/visas

Franco Frattini wants to open negotiations on facilitating visas with Balkans before summer

Luxembourg, 28/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - Following the political agreement of the JHA Council on Thursday on the increase in visa prices (EUROPE 9181), Franco Frattini announced that he was hoping that there would be several negotiation mandates with certain Balkans countries by the summer on the question of granting visas. Mr Frattini indicated that, “In the coming weeks, I will be proposing (at the Council) a negotiation mandate with Macedonia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania”. He also explained that these mandates should be ready “before the summer holidays”. The negotiation mandate for each of the Balkans states would also include several other measures to ensure a balance between freedom of movement and the security of the EU. The Commissioner insisted on the fact that, “the political package” proposed in these countries had to contain both the “measures for facilitating movement” of persons and “measures that help to ensure the security of Member States, as for example, negotiations on readmission agreements”. The Commissioner affirmed that the Balkan states had “a real European vocation. They should, therefore, be helped”. Citing Morocco, he said that they could not “extend this new system beyond countries that had a clear European vocation”. In reply to a question about Turkey, Frattini would only say that, “the Turkish government has always had a cautious approach to negotiations on a readmission agreement with the EU”.

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