German Cramon says in front of the EU: We promised to lift Kosovo visas, failed

Drift-Raporti drafted by Von Cremon on November 17th 2020 will be presented tomorrow on December 10th at the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Commission meeting, where a range of issues on the political and economic situation in Kosovo will be addressed.

Among other things, the report reportedly has unfortunately failed to fulfill the promise of visa liberalisation for Kosovo.

Unfortunately, on the part of the European Union, we were unable to fulfill our promise of visa-free travel for Kosovo citizens, even though the Commission and Parliament have reiterated their support several times in the last two years”, the report says.

On July 18th 2018, in the latest report concerning Kosovo's progress in meeting the criteria released by the visa liberalisation guide, the European Commission had confirmed that Kosovo has fulfilled the last two criteria for visa liberalisation: Establishing a registry of investigations, court-clearing decisions and seizures related to high profile cases of organised crime and corruption, as well as ratification of the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro.

Kosovo remains the only country in the Western Balkans that citizens cannot travel without visas to the EU Schengen zone.

German Ambassador to Kosovo Jorn Rohde in an interview given Journal ExpressIt said Germany wants progress in visa liberalisation, but that Kosovo must commit to convincing sceptical states.

German wants progress on this issue and puts it into the agenda in Brussels. However, all EU member states have not yet been convinced. At the same time it is important for Kosovo to engage directly with all skeptical countries in order to convince them”, Rohde has said.