Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-163"
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"en.20101006.14.3-163"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start by thanking the rapporteur, Mrs Fajon, for her very committed, enthusiastic and hard work on this dossier. It has been a great pleasure working with you – and the shadow rapporteurs as well – in our joint efforts to grant a visa-free regime to the citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Consequently, the Commission considers that all the preconditions listed in the road map are met, and on this basis we propose to grant the visa-free regime. Let me underline that the visa-free regime of the two countries also comes with responsibilities. In order to prevent abuse, it is essential that Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina take all necessary measures to limit influxes of persons making unfounded asylum applications. This aspect has been very strongly highlighted through the contacts between the Commission and the two countries, and I know that efforts have already been made by the two countries in this respect.
It is important that you continue the information campaigns, with the aim of properly informing and explaining to your citizens the meaning of short-term visa travel and what it entails, in particular, warning against misuse for purposes incompatible with visa travel.
Now we are here – and this is a very important step – I hope that the Council will be able to finalise the examination of this proposal during the coming weeks and that we can have a formal adoption that will be confirmed for November.
The proposal we discussed today confirms the European Union’s political will and our commitment on the liberalisation of short-term visa requirements for the citizens of all Western Balkan countries. This is part of the Thessaloniki Agenda and a cornerstone of our integration policy for the Western Balkans.
By supporting the free regime, we are not only sending a political message. That message is important, but we are also concretely facilitating people-to-people contact, enhancing business opportunities and cultural exchanges, and giving people the opportunity to get to know each other – giving the people of Bosnia and Albania the opportunity to get to know the European Union and vice versa.
We stand here today as a result of the hard work of the authorities and the people of these two countries, and I would like to pay tribute to that work. I congratulate them for the efforts made and the important results achieved. The result-oriented visa liberalisation dialogues between the two countries and the European Commission acted as a very strong initiative and incentive, accelerating reforms towards reaching EU standards in the core areas of justice, liberty and security.
The two countries have made important progress in improving passport security, strengthening border control, reinforcing the institutional framework to fight organised crime and corruption, as well as in external relations and fundamental rights. The Commission has thoroughly monitored the steps taken.
In our proposal of May this year, the Commission identified a limited number of remaining open benchmarks for both Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which required further monitoring. This approach followed exactly that which was taken in 2009 for Montenegro and Serbia.
In the case of Albania, the open benchmark related to the development of a policy to support the reintegration of Albanian returnees, the strengthening of capacities in the fight against organised crime and corruption and, finally, effective implementation of the confiscation of organised crime assets.
Regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, the open requirements were the strengthening of the capacities of the fight against organised crime and corruption, steps towards improved electronic police data exchange, and harmonisation of the criminal code between state and entity levels.
On the basis of detailed information provided by the two countries, expert missions with valuable participation of Member States’ experts during this summer and, later, with other information available, the Commission was able to present, on 14 September, our assessment of the fulfilment of the remaining open benchmarks. It showed that both countries had undertaken all necessary measures to fulfil all open benchmarks listed in the proposal of May this year."@en1
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