Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-09-16-Speech-3-181"
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"en.20090916.17.3-181"2
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Madam President, I would like to thank the Minister, Mrs Malmström, for everything she has told us, and which I will try to confirm on behalf of the Commission.
As for Montenegro, a lasting solution must be found for displaced persons. Measures still have to be taken in terms of the effective introduction of the law on foreigners, as well as measures enhancing administrative capacity and which are designed to fight corruption and organised crime more effectively.
That is the situation in these three countries.
Despite the very significant progress accomplished in the course of the last few months, Bosnia and Albania have not yet been able to complete the requisite reforms demanded in the road map, such as the abolition of visas. On the basis of this analysis, the Commission, in response to the invitation made by the General Affairs Council in June 2009, has therefore proposed the abolition of the visa for the citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. For Serbia, persons resident in Kosovo, or persons of Kosovan origin who are resident abroad and who hold a Serbian passport issued by a central authority in Belgrade, will be excluded from the liberalisation and will be required to obtain a visa. Indeed, since 1999, Serbia has not been able to provide verification for identity documents held by people from Kosovo. The Commission has considered the security risk that this category of people represents for the Community, as well as the fact that there has, as yet, been no dialogue on the subject of visa liberalisation with Kosovo.
Therefore, the decision to include certain countries in this liberalisation of visa requirements is based on the merits of each individual country.
As far as Serbia and Montenegro are concerned, we will follow closely the measures taken by these two countries to fully implement all of the criteria. In terms of the progress already made by Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Commission is convinced that these two countries will be in a position to meet all of the criteria in the near future. In October, their authorities will submit supplementary information to the Commission on the progress made in recent months. On the basis of this information, evaluation missions will be deployed at the beginning of next year, and then the Commission will draw up new evaluation reports to be discussed with Member States. Following this, the Commission hopes that it will be in a position to propose the waiver of the visa requirement in 2010.
In accordance with the procedures in force, the proposal will be discussed at the Council and will be the subject of an opinion at the European Parliament. The formal adoption of the text by a majority of the Schengen countries should therefore take place during the Swedish Presidency, which will allow the effective introduction of this abolition of visas for citizens of these three countries from January 2010. As you have said, Minister, all this means the possibility, particularly for the young generation in these Balkan countries, of participating much more in European life, of integrating into it, and we think that all of this can be extremely beneficial, both for these countries and for our Europe.
There you have it. Those are the points I wanted to make following the excellent observations made by the Presidency.
On 15 July, the Commission proposed the abolition of short-term visas for citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. As you have underlined, Minister, this is obviously an historic moment in our relations with the Western Balkans.
This proposal for the abolition of visas is based on the progress made in the last six years in the areas of justice and home affairs, in accordance with the commitments made at Thessaloniki in 2003.
The Commission proposal has been submitted to the Council. The Member States support the approach proposed by the Commission and confirm their intention to work in close cooperation with the European Parliament to guarantee the formal adoption of the text during your Presidency, Minister, the Swedish Presidency.
I thank the European Parliament for appointing the rapporteurs within the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and for setting an indicative timetable scheduling the submission of the report for the end of September, and the votes within the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and then in plenary, for October and November. The goal is, in fact, to obtain visa exemptions for citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro on 1 January 2010.
The Commission’s proposal is based on the results of the dialogue launched in the first half of 2008 with the five countries of the Western Balkans. Road maps have been drawn up stipulating criteria, the realisation of which involves the adoption of structural reforms in the key area of JFS – justice, freedom and security. This method has proved to be a very important incentive for the countries of the region to progress towards reforms, notably in relation to document security, with the introduction of biometric passports and identity cards for border control and global policies on migration, and also in relation to public order and security policies: the fight against organised crime, corruption, human trafficking, and finally, of course, fundamental rights, including matters of citizenship.
Having studied these reports, we can say that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia meets all of the criteria in its road map.
Montenegro and Serbia have made very considerable progress. However, for Serbia, there are still some conditions to be met, in particular, with relation to the verification of identity documents submitted by Kosovo residents and people of Kosovan origin living abroad when they request a Serbian biometric passport.
The second condition for Serbia is the control of borders with Kosovo and cooperation with EULEX, and thirdly, the drafting of a national strategy on migration."@en1
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