Holders of Kosovo’s passports are one step closer to travel visa-free to EU countries after the Council of the European Union adopted its position at first reading related visa-free travel for Kosovars.
The new changes allow Kosovo’s passport holders to travel visa-free to EU countries for 90 days in a 180-day period, while based on the Council’s statement, the abolishment of visa requirements will apply as of the date when the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) becomes effective, on January 1, 2024, whichever comes first, VisaGuide.World reports.
The new rules confirmed by the European Council need to be adopted by the European Parliament before they can be signed as well as published in the EU’s journal.
“Kosovo has made great efforts to improve its security and migration management and to align its visa policy with that of the EU. We hope our cooperation in these fields will continue to be fruitful,” Maria Malmer Stenergard, the Swedish Minister for Migration, said.
Furthermore, the Council considered that the Balkan country made notable progress in all blocks of the visa liberalization roadmap, thus based on the recent assessment, the Commission proposes to lift the visa requirement for holders of Kosovo’s passports.
The Council has considered that the abolishment of the visa requirements for citizens of Kosovo will ensure that the whole Western Balkan is under the same visa regime.
According to the statement, the Commission will continue to monitor the implementation of these requirements, including also visa policy alignment, through the post-visa liberalization mechanism.
The visa abolishment process for Kosovo citizens started on February 19, 2012, however, it has still not been finished even though the Commission previously considered that the Balkan country met all the needed conditions in order for this process to be completed.
Authorities in France last year proposed that Kosovo’s visa liberalization process be linked with the operationalization of ETIAS and such a proposal was backed by the Czech Presidency of the European Union.
But recently it was reported that the launch date of ETIAS was again postponed. Such a decision was confirmed by the European Union’s Spokesperson for Home Affairs, Migration as well as Internal Security, Anitta Hipper, revealing that the launching date of ETIAS was postponed to 2024, however, an exact date for the launching of ETIAS is not available still.
An EU official previously confirmed for SchengenVisaInfo.com that the launching of ETIAS would not affect the date when Kosovo’s citizens would be allowed to travel without visas.
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