News archive - Calls for Visa Liberalisation in the Western Balkans in a “Europe without Barriers”
On the occasion of the presentation of Czech EU Presidency priorities on the Western Balkans, European Citizens Action Service (ECAS) has published a press release calling on the new Czech Presidency to take on the issue of visa liberalization in the spirit of its presidency motto “Europe without Barriers”.
Also the European Stability Initiative (ESI) has further enhancing its activities in this domain.
Within the wider European neighbourhood, ECAS believes that "Europe without borders" should include the Western Balkans. The Czech Presidency should be a step in the right direction with its focus on strengthening civil society and people-to-people contacts, as well as supporting the road maps on visa liberalisation. Enforcement is clearly an issue here too as shown by the hotlines and survey done by ECAS and partner CSO's in the Western Balkans of the visa facilitation agreements. As a contribution on this objective, ECAS has published a report of a conference held on December 10, 2008 on the visa facilitation agreements, which showed that there is a real divergence between those responsible for drawing up the agreements and CSO's monitoring them on the ground.
Source: BSCDN Newsletter, ECAS: http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/138/146/1/1/
Ms. Alexandra Stiglmayr from ESI (European Stability Initaitive) also spoke at the conference about "The Long Wait for Visa-Free Travel" - her speaking notes are available from the conference website, a video intervew on the ESI website: "Making it to the White List" (December 10, 2008)
ESI Background Paper: The White List Project. EU Policies on Visa-Free Travel for the Western Balkans (November 1, 2008)
First assessment of progress on the visa roadmaps / Excerpts from the Commission assessments
Entry created by Elke Dall on January 8, 2009
Modified on January 9, 2009
