EC President Reiterates Her Support of Visa Liberalisation to Kosovo President
European Commission Chief, Ursula von der Leyen, has said that she had a very good meeting and intense conversations with Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani regarding Kosovo’s visa liberalisation process, according to Express Newspaper.
She once again emphasised that Kosovo deserves the visa liberalisation while adding that they will try to convince all persons in the European Union that the visa regime for citizens of Kosovo should be removed, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“Kosovo deserves visa liberalisation. We have now reconfirmed that you have met all the criteria. Our task now is to convince the entire European Council – most of them are already on your side,” Von der Leyen pointed out in this regard.
The President of the European Commission stressed that she had noted the progress achieved by Kosovo, adding that they will do everything in order to abolish the visa regime for Kosovo’s citizens.
Recently, Viola von Cramon, Rapporteur for Kosovo in the European Parliament, stressed that there would be a vote in the European Council regarding Kosovo’s visa liberalisation process between the middle of November or early in December.
Von Cramon stressed that the visa regime for Kosovo’s citizens should be abolished as soon as possible.
“The visa liberalisation process will be finished. We hope we will have a date when visa liberalisation will occur. I saw that this was for the first time on the agenda of the working group of the Council of the EU last Thursday. A clear decision has not yet been made; there will be another vote in mid-November or early December. Behind the scenes, we are working hard to see a positive decision,” she stressed.
It was reported that the European Union Member States will address their requests in the form of comments regarding technical issues for Kosovo’s visa liberalisation process until October 21.
The comments would be accepted by the Czech Presidency of the European Council before the next meeting of the European Commission that will be held in November-December this year.
Such an announcement was made by the head of the LVV Parliamentary Group, Mimoza Kusari-Lila.
It was also reported in the meeting of the Working Group held earlier this month that French authorities proposed that Kosovo’s visa liberalisation process be linked with the European Travel and Authorisation System (ETIAS) operationalisation.
Kosovo’s visa liberalisation process started back on February 19, 2012, but it has not been finalised yet.
