5 minutes agoMandl: If there are visa barriers again, the EU will lose face
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)On the basis of the will of EU member states, citizens of Kosovo should no longer have visas when travelling towards the European Union by 1 January 2024. After a six-year delay, the EU Council decided Wednesday that negotiations on the visa-free regime could begin. Since 2016, the Commission [...]
After a six-year delay, the EU Council decided Wednesday that negotiations on the visa-free regime could begin. Since 2016, the EU Commission had proposed abolishing visas for Kosovo.
On the basis of the negotiations' mandate, the Czech presidency of the EU Council wants to start talks with the EU Parliament.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky spoke of an important step in implementing the promise to abolish visas for Kosovo.
The visa liberalisation “has been made possible by Kosovo's efforts to strengthen its border controls, management of migration and security, and we believe that this good co-operation will increase more in the future”, Lipavsky said.
Kosovo passports holders will be able to travel to the EU without visas for a three-month period. One condition for this was the accession of Kosovo to the European Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which is scheduled to take effect in November 2023.
The Austrian Greens Eurodeput, Thomas Waitz, criticised EU institutions for delays towards the decision.
“took a long time for member states to eventually agree on the negotiations”, criticised the Waitz Eurodeput.
He said it has massively damaged the EU's credibility. “The visa liberalisation link with participation in the ETIAS unnecessarily postpones the process once again. Of all Western Balkan countries, Kosovo has already met most of the conditions and many reforms such as document security, border management and migration, public order and security, and the strengthening of fundamental rights have long been implemented”, says Waitz, the APA reports.
The head of the SPO-EU delegation and its parliamentary group rapporteur for Kosovo, Andreas Schieder, expressed satisfaction with today's decision.
Kosovo has fulfilled its part of the task. The long delay has legitimately caused many frustrations in the population, visa liberalisation is delayed and the right step”, Schieder said, conveys Klakosova.tv.
He voiced confidence that negotiations with the EU Council will soon reach a successful conclusion.
A similar statement made the other Austrian OVP eurodeput, Lucas Mandl, where he said if there are obstacles again, the European Union “would lose its face”.
Even after meeting all criteria, Kosovo had to wait nearly half a decade. Given the apparent weaknesses in the EU decision-making structures that have come to light here, the question of amendments to the treaty” arises again, Mandl said.
