Today, the vote on the liberalization of visas for Kosovo/Signing is expected tomorrow

2023-04-18 08:11:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Today, the vote on the liberalization of visas for Kosovo/Signing is expected

Illustrative photo

The European Parliament votes today on the decision to liberalize visas for citizens of Kosovo - thus the procedures for this issue are coming to an end.

A day later, on April 19, the legal act for the liberalization of visas will be signed, while the only step that must be taken after that is the publication of the decision in the Official Gazette of the EU and its entry into force.

The Council of Ministers of the EU has approved with a simple majority the liberalization of visas for Kosovo, last month.

It is now clear that the implementation of the decision will not be postponed beyond January 1, 2024. This issue has been related to the ETIAS travel system in Europe, namely its entry into force.

Since the deadline for the operationalization of ETIAS has been postponed to 2024, the lifting of visas for citizens of Kosovo is expected to take place on January 1 of the next year.

In the European Parliament, there is not expected to be any problem during the voting, as a large majority of deputies support the liberalization of visas for Kosovo.

In fact, the European Parliament has been the institution of the EU, which has mostly supported the free movement of the citizens of Kosovo and has constantly reprimanded the Council of the EU and the European Commission for, as has been said, unnecessary delays in this process.

The legal act for the liberalization of visas for Kosovo is expected to be signed by the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the minister for Europe of Sweden, Jessika Roswall, whose country currently chairs the EU Council.

The first deputy prime minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, and the minister of foreign affairs of Kosovo, Donika Gërvalla, were also invited to participate in the signing ceremony.

Visa liberalization will enable Kosovo citizens to travel freely in what is known as the Schengen area, which consists of 27 European countries.

This regime allows visa-free travel for only up to 90 days - within six months - in any of the member states of the Schengen area.

Visa-free travel must be for tourist visits, family matters or similar, and in no case imply a work permit or other benefits.

Kosovo, currently, is the only country in the Western Balkans whose citizens cannot move freely in the Schengen area.

This, despite the fact that the European Commission, as early as 2018, has confirmed several times that Kosovo has met all the conditions for visa liberalization, but there have been several member countries that have constantly expressed reservations./ Rel