Holders of Serbian passports with Kosova, issued by the Coordination Administration of Serbia, can travel to EU countries from today without visas, since the Regulation on the abolition of visas, which was published in the Official Journal of the EU on September 23, entered into force.
"This Regulation is fully binding and directly applicable in member states in accordance with the Treaties," the document states.
"I consider this to be good news, because it removes the injustice and discriminatory treatment of the EU towards them, because they are the last from the Western Balkans to be granted a visa-free regime," says Danijel Apostolović, Serbia's ambassador to the EU.
He points out that this decision is the result of the diplomatic struggle of the officials of the Republic of Serbia, which, according to him, was not easy at all.
"As you know, the Pristina side opposed the adoption of that decision, with senseless arguments, which once again showed non-constructiveness, and above all, inhumane attitude towards citizens, and that their goal is not the normalization of people's everyday life. Fortunately, the arguments of our side won," says Apostolović, RTS reports.
He expressed his gratitude to Commissioner Ilda Johansson, Matthias Nemež, who was the rapporteur for this issue, as well as numerous members of the European Parliament who adopted this decision by a large majority of votes. 406 of them voted for, 97 against.
The Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on amendments to the Regulation relating to the holders of Serbian passports issued by the Coordination Administration of Serbia was signed on September 18 in Strasbourg by the President of the European Parliament (EP) Roberta Metzola and the Minister for European Affairs of Hungary Janos Boka, as the representative of the country that presides by the Council of the EU.
Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija were the last in the Western Balkans who needed a visa to travel to European Union countries.
Although citizens of Serbia were granted a visa-free regime back in 2009, Serbs from the Republic of Kosovo were exempted from that decision. Thus, a "special passport" was introduced for them, which looks identical to the one used by other citizens of Serbia, but it was issued by the Coordinating Administration for Kosovo and Metohija, Nova.rs reports.
Sources: RTS/Nova.rs
