Schengen white list beckoning next year

Following the adoption of a set of vital laws yesterday, Serbia could accede to the Schengen white list next year. The data protection law, the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Protection of State Borders are just part of the conditions that Serbia has to meet on its path to a visa-free regime. Besides issuing new passports, the new laws have to be implemented in practice. Schengen white list beckoning next year While the data protection law and the Law on Protection of State Borders safeguard the integrity of both the state and its citizens, the Law on Foreigners means that Serbia will, for the first time as an independent state, regulate issues of entry, movement and foreigners’ stay on its own territory. European integration expert Vladimir Todoric from the Legal Forum says that the bulk of the work has been done. “Serbia has to reach a satisfactory level of legal implementation in any case before the first half of next year as we should expect a reshuffle at the European Commission,“ says Todoric. “Besides technical issues, there are still at least two political issues linked to the white Schengen, which concern whether our authorities will issue new biometric passports to the Kosovo Albanians and whether they’ll be issued to those who want to take out Republic of Srpska citizenship,“ said Todoric. He adds that it is also necessary to adopt another law on classification of secret information. Goran Svilanovic, the UN representative in the Regional Council for Cooperation, says that the laws already passed are a good start. “This really is a big step, following, it must be said, a huge delay because of the blockages in parliament, but also a last gasp step for us to be able to expect a completely different situation at the end of this year, and to finally be in a position next year to scrap visas,“ says Svilanovic. “It’s not a question of whether the laws will be passed. It’s a question of whether the laws will begin to function, whether people will feel that something has changed, and that also means that our European partners will see that Serbia is functioning in line with the newly enacted laws,“ he points out. Svilanovic says that Serbian citizens will probably be able to travel freely around Europe without any problems as early as next year.

Schengen white list beckoning next year

While the data protection law and the Law on Protection of State Borders safeguard the integrity of both the state and its citizens, the Law on Foreigners means that Serbia will, for the first time as an independent state, regulate issues of entry, movement and foreigners’ stay on its own territory.

European integration expert Vladimir Todorić from the Legal Forum says that the bulk of the work has been done.

“Serbia has to reach a satisfactory level of legal implementation in any case before the first half of next year as we should expect a reshuffle at the European Commission,“ says Todorić.

“Besides technical issues, there are still at least two political issues linked to the white Schengen, which concern whether our authorities will issue new biometric passports to the Kosovo Albanians and whether they’ll be issued to those who want to take out Republic of Srpska citizenship,“ said Todorić.

He adds that it is also necessary to adopt another law on classification of secret information.

Goran Svilanović, the UN representative in the Regional Council for Cooperation, says that the laws already passed are a good start.

“This really is a big step, following, it must be said, a huge delay because of the blockages in parliament, but also a last gasp step for us to be able to expect a completely different situation at the end of this year, and to finally be in a position next year to scrap visas,“ says Svilanović.

“It’s not a question of whether the laws will be passed. It’s a question of whether the laws will begin to function, whether people will feel that something has changed, and that also means that our European partners will see that Serbia is functioning in line with the newly enacted laws,“ he points out.

Svilanović says that Serbian citizens will probably be able to travel freely around Europe without any problems as early as next year.