25 minutes agoEuropean Parliament votes report for Kosovo today, visa liberalisation mentioned
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)The European Parliament's plenary session on Wednesday will vote on reports on Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were approved a month ago in the Foreign Policy Commission. The vote follows the debate held Tuesday evening in the EP on these reports. During the debate, Kosovo dominated calls to liberalise [...]
During the debate, Kosovo dominated calls to liberalise visas and to have progress in dialogue with Serbia, mediated by the European Union.
German MP Violet von Cremon has prepared the Kosovo report. During his speech at the July 5th debate, von Cremon said he welcomes Kosovo's positions about the war in Ukraine and once again called for visa liberalisation for Kosovo citizens.
Kosovo's “citizens are also aware that I personally and the European Parliament have constantly raised the need for immediate visa liberalisation, which has been significantly prolonged despite the fact that Kosovo has met all conditions”, von Cromon said.
With the exception of some MPs from the far-right ranks, most lawmakers have supported visa liberalisation for Kosovo, and this will be in the final version of the report's text that will be voted on Wednesday.
The text is expected to remain much as approved by the Foreign Policy Commission. At the plenary session, according to MPs, it will only be challenging to vote on an amendment requiring that the comprehensive agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, which must come out of the dialogue, include mutual recognition.
That requirement was approved on the Foreign Policy Commission, even though it has rejected the rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimir Bilic, who is from Slovakia, a state that does not recognise Kosovo's independence.
Now there are efforts for the formula, which includes mutual recognition, to be removed during the voting at the plenary session.
The report's text also repeats the call for the five EU nations that do not recognise Kosovo to do so.
The five EU states that do not recognise Kosovo are: Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Cyprus and Greece.
From Serbia to the report will be required to support the EU's positions on Russia and aggression against Ukraine, including the sanctions the European Union has imposed against Moscow.
Serbia is the only state in the region that has not imposed sanctions on Moscow, following the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
Otherwise, such European Parliament resolutions, which in the form of individual reports for the countries of the Western Balkans region, are adopted once a year, have political significance, but are not binding on EU member states. / REL
