Visa lift for Serbian passport owners in Kosovo targeted in April

From Slovenia's cabinet of rapporteurs told Radio Free Europe that Nemec has already compiled the visa-free draft of Serbian passport carriers living in Kosovo, passports that have been issued by the Co-ordination Authority, which operates within the framework of Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Nemec's office said that the Commission for Civil Freedoms, Justice and Internal Affairs The EP would have to vote on this report on April 8th, so that the report could then be put to the polls at the EP's plenary session, held from 22 April to 25 April.

This will be the last plenary session of the current EP composition, as new elections for this institution in the 27 European Union member states will be held from June 6th to 9th.

“Plani, of course, is preliminary and at any moment can even undergo changes, if that's how the majority puts in the European Parliament”, the envoy says. REL from the Nemec eurodeput office.

The aim of the rapporteur is to adopt this file at the last plenary session in April, and we will make efforts to make that happen”, Matjas Nemec's office said.

Nemec on April 4th appointed rapporteur The EP for changing the regulation for visa liberalisation for Serbia, which would include the owners of the passports of this Kosovo-based state, for which passports issue the Co-ordination Authority in Belgrade. Owners of these passports are the only ones in the Western Balkans who cannot travel without visas to the Schengen Zone countries.

After such a decision was approved by the EP, then it would take for it to have reconciliation with the EU Council.

In November 2023, the European Commission proposed that visas be lifted for Serbian passport owners in Kosovo.

But, the Kosovo government has criticised and rejected such a decision, calling it “a violation of Kosovo's territorial integrity”.

Citizens of Kosovo who possess passports from the Republic of Kosovo enjoy the visa-free regime as of January 1st this year.

But from this decision were expelled those citizens who own passports issued by the Co-ordination Authority, which operates within the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. They were expelled even when visas were lifted for Serbia's citizens in December 2009.

With the decision to annul visas for Kosovo, citizens who have only Serbian passports remain the only ones in the Western Balkans who do not enjoy visa-free regimes with European countries.