Brussels, 09/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Czech EU Presidency must include liberalisation of the visa regime with the Western Balkans among its priorities, the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) said on Wednesday 7 January. Within the wider European neighbourhood, ECAS believes that “Europe without Borders” should include Albania, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, ECAS states, adopting the slogan of the Czech Presidency for the next six months. “The Czech Presidency should be a step in the right direction with its focus on strengthening civil society and people-to-people contacts, as well as supporting the road maps on visa liberalisation”, adds the Brussels-based association, whose action aims to bring citizens closer to Community institutions. According to ECAS, nationals of the Western Balkans still encounter many problems when it comes to enjoying the advantages of visa facilitation granted to their country by the European Union. First of all, facilitation agreements have not allowed visa applications to be dealt with more efficiently, or reduced queues at consulates. The cost of visas, normally fixed at €35 in the agreements, and processing within 10 days are also often not kept with extra costs and delays. “The overall advantages visa facilitation should bring have been lost sight of because of lack of information especially from the governments and also the very diverse ways they are applied or not by member states' consulates”, the ECAS bemoans. The association finally calls on the European Commission to conduct a “more transparent” policy with regard to visas and to give regular updates on the latest developments to citizens and NGOs working on the theme of liberalisation.
Agreements on re-entry and further relaxing of requirements for visa issue with Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, FYROM and Serbia took effect on 1 January 2008. Early in 2008, the European Commission then began dialogue with these countries on making the visa regime more flexible, giving them a roadmap for abolishing the visa regime. Although FYROM can hope to lift the visa obligation for its nationals during the year 2009, the other countries may have to wait until 2010. (B.C./transl.jl)