Eurasia Press & News
The Special Advisor for EU enlargement, Erhard Busek, said that the Schengen visa regime could be abolished by the end of the year for Serbian citizens. The same announcement came from Serbian Interor Minister, Ivica Dacic.
“The abolishment of visas is supposed to occur during the Swedish EU presidency in the second half of 2009,” Erhard Busek, the Special Advisor for European Union enlargement told the Belgrade daily Blic.
He said that there is no direct resistance from any EU member-state regarding visa liberalization for Serbian citizens, but there are still concerns due to “internal political reasons.”
Busek said that there is no new political reason that could stop the realization of the process by the end of the year.
He said that the European Commission has not discussed what the status of Kosovo passports would be.
“Personally I can say that Kosovo should be treated like all other countries in the region. I believe that it would be even better if Kosovo passports were recognized by the rest of the countries in the region,” he said.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, told the Beta Agency that Serbia will be placed on the EU’s so-called white Schengen list by the end of this year.
“It is almost certain that Serbia will not only get a positive mark from the European Commission and the European Parliament by the end of the year, but that a formal decision on visa liberalization, that is, placing Serbia on the white Schengen list, will be made,” said Dacic. He stressed that this statement was “not made for daily political purposes”, but rather was a “realistic date”.
Dacic also announced that he will hold a number of bilateral meetings related to the issue on Tuesday in Prague, during a ministerial conference in the Czech capital.
