BRUSSELS – On Monday, the Council of the European Union adopted a regulation removing the exclusion previously applied to holders of Serbian passports in Kosovo issued by the Serbian Coordination Directorate. This ensures that the whole Western Balkan region is subject to the same visa regime.
The decision is expected to affect about 18.000 Serbian residents of Kosovo who hold these passports.
Today’s adoption by the Council concludes the legislative process. As soon as the regulation enters into force, which will happen on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, it will become applicable in all EU member states.
On 16 November 2023, the Commission published a proposal to remove this exclusion. The amendment of the relevant regulation was adopted by the previous European Parliament during its final plenary session, in April 2024.
Since December 2009, holders of Serbian biometric passports were exempted from the visa requirement when travelling to the Schengen area. One category of holders of Serbian passports was excluded from the visa requirement exemption at the time, namely the holders of passports issued by the Serbian Coordination Directorate in Belgrade.
Nemec: Discrimination is unacceptable
Member of European Parliament Matjaž Nemec, who was a Rapporteur for this issue earlier this year, issued a statement welcoming the Council’s decision.
According to Nemec, since assuming the mandate, he has defended the position that this was a technical decision, not a political one.
“For me, the fact that a relatively small group of people in the Western Balkans would remain discriminated against, while in the Union this year we finally abolished visas for all countries from the region, is unacceptable. Kosovo was the last country to which the Union gave the green light on 1 January 2024, after years of waiting”, Nemec stated, KoSSev reports.
He added that he would try to make it easier for the citizens of Kosovo to travel to the member countries before the beginning of autumn.