Serbian citizens offered easier travel to EU

07/05/2008

Up to 80% of Serbian citizens are expected to benefit from 17 European countries' decision on Tuesday to offer free visas for visitors from the Balkan nation.

(Wall Street Journal - 07/05/08; AFP, Reuters, DPA, BBC, Euronews, Balkan Insight, Beta, B92 - 06/05/08)

Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of the transport policy Jacques Barrot will hold talks in Serbia Wednesday (May 7th) on visa reform. [Getty Images]

Seventeen European countries issued a joint statement Tuesday (May 6th), announcing their decision to waive visa fees for Serbian citizens, five days before the Balkan nation's most critical parliamentary elections since October 2000.

"We have decided to make full usage of the flexibility referred to by the European Commission (EC) to provide free visas to all individual applicants for whom that is a possibility," the statement released by the French foreign ministry said.

Last month, the EC and Slovenia, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, urged the members of the 27-nation bloc to relax the visa regime for people from Western Balkan countries, including Serbia, as a step towards its full liberalisation.

The countries that offered free visas to Serbia's people on Tuesday included 16 EU nations -- Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden -- and non-EU member Norway.

Their joint statement described the move as representing "a signal that the EU as a whole is willing to support Serbia's aspirations towards Europe".

The EC believes that Tuesday's measure could benefit up to 80% of the 7.5 million people living in the Balkan nation.

While Serbs were able to travel widely before the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, currently the average monthly salaries in the country stand at only 350 euros, making the charges for an EU visa unaffordable for a large portion of the population. Many of its young voters are said to have never travelled abroad.

"In the future, the majority of people under 25 will also be able to obtain free visas," the joint statement said.

Just a day before the nations announced their decision, Serbian Parliament Speaker Oliver Dulic voiced hope that other EU nations would join the initiative. "At this moment in time, the EU wants to show Serbian citizens that they are welcome in the EU, and that Serbia is welcome in the EU, and one of the best ways to do this is to slowly liberalise and ultimately normalise the visa regime, and abolish visa requirements for Serbian citizens," Belgrade-based B92 quoted him as saying Monday.

The decision to abolish visa fees for Serbian travellers follows a move earlier this year to ease the Union's visa restrictions for the Balkan nation's citizens.

It was announced a week after Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic and Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic travelled to Luxembourg to sign their country's Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, seen as a major first step towards eventual membership in the Union.

Serbian nationalist parties have denounced the accord, viewing it as tantamount to legitimising Kosovo's independence. They have threatened to annul the pact after the country's parliamentary elections on Sunday.

Opinion polls ahead of the crucial vote have shown the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) with a slight lead over a pro-European coalition led by Tadic. The Radicals have made it clear that they want to build closer ties with Serbia's "true friends", such as Russia, as well as with China, India, Arab and African countries.

Different surveys have shown, however, that 70% of Serbs support EU integration.

Serbia itself had "knocked on the door to Europe", the BBC quoted EC spokesman Friso Roscam-Abbing as saying Tuesday. "What we're doing now is we're opening up the doors to Europe with the various steps we've recently agreed upon … we are welcoming them, to become ultimately a member of the big European family."

Meanwhile, Jacques Barrot, EU's interim commissioner for justice, freedom and security, is scheduled to arrive on a two-day visit to Belgrade on Wednesday to present a "road map" for talks that should lead to the full liberalisation of the bloc's visa regime for Serbia.