Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-05-Speech-3-314"
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"en.20060705.20.3-314"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as we well know, at present all citizens of countries in the Western Balkans, except for Croatia, need a visa when travelling to the European Union. Visa requirements, as has been mentioned in this discussion, obviously complicate travel arrangements and raise costs. We must remember, however, that this issue is crucial to the control of the Union’s external borders.
The General Affairs and External Relations Council, in its conclusions of June this year, hoped that the mandates for visa flexibility and readmission agreements would be adopted this year, so that talks on visa flexibility could be brought to a conclusion with all the countries in the Western Balkans by the end of next year. We hope that the first agreements will be in place as early as this year. The Finnish Presidency will aim to support this timetable of objectives, which would also ensure that the increases in visa fees that take effect next year would not apply to the Western Balkan countries.
I quite understand that the European Union’s policy on visas is seen as awkward in the Western Balkans, and even as a factor that is hampering rapprochement with the Union. In the area of the former Yugoslavia they still remember a time when visas were not needed.
It is obvious that, for example, the mobility of youth and students needs to be facilitated. This is a way of lending support to the notions of access to information, open democracy and social development. One important goal of future flexibility on visa requirements will be to promote and facilitate contact between young people in the Western Balkans and the rest of Europe.
The EU has nominated the countries of the Western Balkans as possible candidate countries. They have a clear EU perspective, which also ultimately means relaxing visa requirements. There is nevertheless some way to go before we can start negotiating the waiving of visa requirements. That will require the Western Balkan countries to introduce significant administrative reforms in, for example, greater security of documentation and the fight against organised crime and corruption.
At the Thessaloniki Summit in summer 2003, the European Council stated that the issue of visas was important for the countries of the Western Balkans. Since then, the Commission has discussed with each Western Balkan country the necessary administrative preparations to make the visa regime easier and, in the long term, waive visa requirements altogether. In January 2006 the Commission issued a communication on the Western Balkans in which it set out a large number of proposals also to make the visa regime easier in accordance with the Hague Programme. The Council is committed to the implementation of the proposals on the Thessaloniki agenda, and has also stated that it supports the Commission’s proposals.
One important step forward in the area of increased mobility is the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on local border traffic, due to enter into force soon. This will make it easier for border residents to cross the external borders of the EU. This will be of special importance in the case of the Western Balkans when Bulgaria and Romania join the EU.
On the request of the Council, the Commission is also to put forward proposals on the start of talks on visa flexibility agreements with all the countries in the Western Balkans. Special action would be taken, for example, to promote researcher and student exchanges and facilitate the movement of other separately identifiable groups.
The visa flexibility agreements will be separately negotiable Community agreements within the framework of the Schengen rules. They will be closely linked to the readmission agreements which the Hague Programme sets forth as a condition of easing visa requirements. This way the Union will also benefit from the arrangement because the countries in the Western Balkans will at the same time undertake to readmit citizens of third countries who have passed through them illegally on their way to the EU. At present only Albania has a readmission agreement with the Union. The countries of the Western Balkans have bilateral readmission agreements with many Member States of the Union, so we assume that negotiations at Community level will also go smoothly.
The Commission has already put forward proposals for talks both on visa flexibility agreements and readmission agreements with Macedonia, in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. These mandates for negotiation are now being discussed by the Council at working group level. When the Council has adopted them, the Commission can begin talks. Proposals for mandates for other countries in the Western Balkans are expected to come from the Commission in July. The working groups will try to deal with the proposals as quickly as possible for a decision to be taken by the Council."@en1
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