Đelić: EC visa report yet to arrive

Deputy PM Bozidar Djelic says that Serbia has yet to receive the European Commission's (EC) official report on Serbia’s progress towards visa liberalization. The EC stated that it would propose the scrapping of visas as soon as possible. Djelic: EC visa report yet to arrive Djelic said that Serbia was currently working on getting all the new bio-metric passports out to citizens. He told B92 that of the 550,000 new passports issued, only about 5,000 were for people living in Kosovo. One of the key question marks regarding visa liberalization continues to be the way in which passports will be issued to people registered as living in the province. “That means that the procedure will be such that the European Commission will approve, and that a procedure will be in place guaranteeing that these passports do not fall into the wrong hands,” Djelic explained. “You see, dialogue is under way as we speak, there is dialogue between the European Commission and the member-states, and once they give their suggestions, we will be able to finalize certain things and the report will be finished off,” Djelic said. Earlier, the EC said that it had presented its amended report to EU member-states on West Balkan countries' fulfillment of conditions for visa liberalization. EC Vice-President Jacques Barrot announced that he would soon be putting forward a recommendation for abolishing visas for countries that have fulfilled the conditions. The original report from November 2008 was complemented with new information gathered by EC expert missions during their stays in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first three months of 2009, German radio Deutsche Welle reported. Barrot commended the efforts of the West Balkan countries in the process of implementing the EU Road Map, as well as their cooperation with the European expert missions. He stressed that visa liberalization was a likely perspective for all the Western Balkan countries.

Đelić: EC visa report yet to arrive

Đelić said that Serbia was currently working on getting all the new bio-metric passports out to citizens.

He told B92 that of the 550,000 new passports issued, only about 5,000 were for people living in Kosovo.

One of the key question marks regarding visa liberalization continues to be the way in which passports will be issued to people registered as living in the province.

“That means that the procedure will be such that the European Commission will approve, and that a procedure will be in place guaranteeing that these passports do not fall into the wrong hands,” Đelić explained.

“You see, dialogue is under way as we speak, there is dialogue between the European Commission and the member-states, and once they give their suggestions, we will be able to finalize certain things and the report will be finished off,” Đelić said.

Earlier, the EC said that it had presented its amended report to EU member-states on West Balkan countries' fulfillment of conditions for visa liberalization.

EC Vice-President Jacques Barrot announced that he would soon be putting forward a recommendation for abolishing visas for countries that have fulfilled the conditions.

The original report from November 2008 was complemented with new information gathered by EC expert missions during their stays in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first three months of 2009, German radio Deutsche Welle reported.

Barrot commended the efforts of the West Balkan countries in the process of implementing the EU Road Map, as well as their cooperation with the European expert missions.

He stressed that visa liberalization was a likely perspective for all the Western Balkan countries.