19 June 2009 | Despite efforts by the government, Kosovo is the only country in the region that is out of the race for visa liberalisation.

"This facilitating measure for Kosovo is not seen as an official priority for Sweden, which will take the EU presidency for the next six months," Kosovo's public service broadcaster RTK reported last week.

When Kosovo meets the required conditions, the country will obtain visa-free travel, the European Commission (EC) said.

Publicly, Kosovo officials promise to fulfill the necessary criteria.

"We have taken already some decisions, in particular, the policy of migration and the integrated management of the borders. There are also some technical preparations needed for the travel documents," Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci told Radio Free Europe.

He believes Kosovo will integrate into the liberalisation process by 2011.

But problems persist. Serbia has issued nearly 1,200 biometric passports to Kosovo Albanians and Albanians living in southern Serbia since July 2008, the daily Danas quoted Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic as saying.

The EC and Serbian government sources have told Danas that the passport process is one of the key issues discussed between Belgrade and the EC.

"At least 500,000 Kosovo Albanians live in Western Europe and return to Kosovo for visits, often via Belgrade. But Serbia does not recognise Kosovo passports, so they are forced to take Serb travel documents in order to drive home or face paying higher prices for flights to the Kosovo capital," Radio Free Europe reported in April.

Since 2005, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has criticised the EU's visa regime in the Balkans. The visa policy could incite discontent, hinder the development of trade, business and education and have a negative impact on regional stability, the ICG says.

To fix the situation in Kosovo, "the European Commission is looking into ways to make it possible to ease travelling conditions," EC spokesperson Krisztina Nagy told the daily Bota Sot.

"The European Commission will make public a study on the ways and means for the further political development and the socio-economic development of Kosovo, in the framework of the European perspective it shares with the rest of the Western Balkans. The visa issue will be treated in this context," she said.

*This text is courtesy of the Southeast European Times (SET), a web site sponsored by the US Department of Defense in support of UN Resolution 1244, designed to provide an international audience with a portal to a broad range of information about Southeastern Europe. It highlights movement toward greater regional stability and steps governments take toward integration into European institutions. SET also focuses on developments that hinder both terrorist activity and support for terrorism in the region.

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