The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) adopted today the draft report on visa liberalisation for holders of Serbian passports from Kosovo and Metohija issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia; the report was submitted by the EP member and rapporteur for the abolition of those visas, Matjaž Nemec.
Thirty-four LIBE members voted for the report, seven were against it, and 12 abstained.
As Tanjug was told in Nemec’s cabinet, after the adoption of the draft report in the EP Committee, the European Parliament should vote on the document at the last plenary session, which will be held from 22 to 25 April in Strasbourg.
At the beginning of March this year, Nemec drafted a report on the proposal for a regulation of the EP and the Council of the EU on amendments and supplements to the regulation for holders of Serbian passports issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia, in which he requested the rapid adoption of this document in the EP without amendments and in the current convocation.
The text states that the abolition of the visa regime exemption for holders of Serbian passports issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia would ensure that the entire region of the Western Balkans is subject to the same visa regime.
The rapporteur labelled it discrimination that Serbian citizens in Kosovo and Metohija, who were holders of passports issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia, were “the last category of persons in the Western Balkans who need a visa” for the EU, through no fault of their own.
In mid-March, Nemec told Tanjug that it was possible to quickly resolve the issue of visa liberalisation for holders of Serbian passports from Kosovo and Metohija issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia, and pointed out that it was up to the EP to make a decision on the issue by the end of April.
He said that the main points of his report were that Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija got visas and the possibility of travelling to the EU, assessing that there were no significant obstacles to solving that issue.
Nemec drafted the report on visa liberalisation for holders of Serbian passports from Kosovo and Metohija after the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs appointed him as the rapporteur for the abolition of visas for passports for Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija.
Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, who have passports issued by the Coordination Directorate, which functions within the Ministry of Interior of Serbia, are the only ones who still need a visa to enter EU countries after visas were abolished for the citizens of so-called Kosovo as of 1 January 2024.
In November 2023, the European Commission proposed to start a procedure to also include the citizens of Kosovo and Metohija, who have passports issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia, in the visa liberalisation.
Source: Tanjug
