Immigration: EU Parliament Confirms Its Support For Kosovo Visa Liberalization for the Third Time in a Year

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Almost half a year after Kosovo visa liberalization was last brought up at the highest EU bodies, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties has voted yesterday pro visa liberalization for Kosovo passport holders, despite opposition from several EU member states, in particular, those that haven’t yet recognized Kosovo as an independent country.

49 lawmakers from the LIBE Committee voted to start talks with the European Council, the approval of which is the last major step for Kosovo citizens to start traveling visa-free to the Schengen Area Member States.

This is the third time that the EP is voting to start the talks with the EU Council, which due to the opposition of a few EU members have failed to happen, including Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain, which do not recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

During a debate in a plenary on March this year, the EP rapporteur for the proposal Tanja Fajon criticized the EU governments for not granting visa liberalization to Kosovo, this far.

“EU governments have not delivered what they promised”, Fajon had complained adding that the EU member states are blocking a little country without real reasons.

The European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) had given the green light for visa liberalization for Kosovo citizens in August last year, for the first time. Later, in September, the European Parliament agreed to open talks on the abolition of the visa regime for Kosovo, the last country in the region, which remains isolated.

Now the council of ministers needs to agree to move Kosovo under the list of visa-free countries, in order to complete the process. While many high EU officials and politicians from the Member States have voiced their concerns that visa liberalization is being delayed without a reason, like Fajon, some of the EU members still think Kosovo does not qualify for liberalization, despite having met the criteria set.

After the 2014 refugee crisis in Europe, during which Kosovars were the main asylum seekers from countries listed as safe, the EU fears that a possible influx of asylum-seekers or illegal migrants from Kosovo may take place again.

Yet, a report published by SchengenVisaInfo shows that asylum seekers from Kosovo should no longer be a concern for the EU countries. In fact, there are 12 countries that already have a visa-free travel agreement with the EU, which even years after the agreements were reached, still file higher numbers of unfounded asylum applications, including Kosovo’s neighbors, Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

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