13 minutes agoKosovars spent 89m euros on visa equipment Schengen!
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)Ten years after the start of visa dialogue and four years from standards implementation, Kosovo is still awaiting a visa-free regime with the EU. There are positive signals from the EU to complete the multivolume liberalisation process for Kosovo. The following weeks are crucial. With a positive decision dated October 13th [...]
There are positive signals from the EU to complete the multivolume liberalisation process for Kosovo. The following weeks are crucial. With a positive decision dated October 13th, 2022, at the European Commission's Visa Working Group meeting, visa liberalisation for Kosovo would enter the formal approval path, which could last several months.
The new report by the Group for the Balkans visa regime for Kosovo: will the EU put an end to this long agony, provides detailed information on the process, and argues that delays on the EU's part in the liberalisation process are entirely unwarranted. Kosovo has continued to make additional progress in fighting organised crime and corruption, enough to convince skeptical member states.
· 13.4% increase in police raids in 2021 compared to 2020;
A 75% increase in fighting organised crime groups;
·upion of 85% of allegations of economic crimes and corruption compared to a year ago;
· Establishing a new tracking mechanism for high-level corruption cases and organised crime. The number of target cases increased from 31 in 2016 to 82 in 2022;
· Kosovo is ranked first in the Western Balkans by the World Law Rule Justice Report;
· Improving its position in Transparency International Index with 17 countries/and second place with best scores in the Western Balkans;
· A total of 726 new cases with 792 persons arrested and 541 charges against 738 suspected in the field of drug prevention and combating.
· Moreover, the number of asylum seekers has dropped from 4720 in 2018 to 2345 in 2021, another success indicator.
The visa regime has cost many citizens and the Kosovo economy. From 2016 to 2021, embassies of Schengen countries have accepted 539,344 applications. Calculating the smallest possible average, Kosovars have paid about 89m euros for tourist visas to travel to EU countries. This figure is extremely high for a country with an annual GDP of $4,986 per head of GDP (2021) and an average salary of 484 $ (2021). However, the EU and its members are the biggest donor for Kosovo. It is noteworthy that Kosovo will benefit 63.96m EUR from IPA funds III (2021-227)”, the Group for the Balkans report said.
According to this report, the visa regime has unable Kosovo companies to have equal access to their neighbours on European markets. The Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU (2015) has had smaller effects on Kosovo than on other countries in the region, due to the lack of free movement of people. There can be no free movement of goods and services (as envisioned in the SAA) without free movement of people.
Consequently, Kosovo companies, compared to the region, have always been at disadvantages and have fewer opportunities. Kosovo companies, surveyed by the Group for the Balkans, consider that the visa regime has negatively affected circulation by 15-50%.
