Macedonia and Serbia to Have Visa-Free Regime to the EU by End of the Year
Balkan Travellers
Macedonia received the document containing all the criteria on Thursday, the daily newspaper Vecher reported today. The requirements include document security, integrated border management, the fight against corruption and organised crime and the upholding of human rights.
Experts, quoted by Vecher, say that Macedonia could fulfil all the requirements by the end of the year, making it possible for Macedonian citizens to travel to the EU without visas starting in 2009.
Serbian officials and Jacques Barrot, the European Commission’s Vice-President, signed on Wednesday a road map for Serbia’s entry into a visa-free regime with the EU. The document also contains requirements, which Serbia will have to fulfil before its citizens can travel to the EU freely. Some of the criteria pertain to personal and travel documents, while others concern illegal migration and border and transport security.
The EU will decide by the end of the year which of the Western Balkan states are to be included in the so-called ‘white Schengen list.’ As BalkanTravellers.com reported on Thursday, Albania is also expecting to receive a list of criteria it will have to fulfil before its visa regime with the EU is liberalised.
As part of its initiative to ease visa restrictions for the Western Balkan countries, the EU began talks with Serbia in January, Macedonia and Montenegro in February and Albania in March.
Read more about Macedonia and Serbia on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Macedonia and Serbia
Balkan Cuisine
Macedonia
Culinary (and Other) Delights of Macedonia's Tikvesh Wine Region
In this engaging travel piece, the author recounts a summer expedition into Macedonia’s wine country, and a trip down the country’s ‘other’ lake - Tikvesh, which is also the general name for the entire dry and dusty region of south-central Macedonia where the country’s best wine is cultivated and where life still moves to an age-old bucolic village rhythm. Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Macedonia
Such an Easy Metaphor
In the centre of Skopje, there is a clock which shows the correct time only twice in the course of 24 hours: shortly before dawn and at dusk. This mode of operation has been in place since 5:17am on July 26, 1963, when the Macedonian capital was half-destroyed by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter Scale.
Full Story
Useful reads
Albania
The Siege (2008) | By Ismail Kadare
The Siege by Ismail Kadare was published recently in English, almost 40 years after it came out in Albania. The historical novel, written during Albania’s isolation imposed by the communist regime, is a fascinating allegory of this part of the Balkans in the 1970s– a reality which no Albanian writer was allowed to describe in a more direct way at the time.
Full Story
Music Box
Macedonia
Esma Redžepova, the Institution
If it is true that interesting women, as they advance in age, become like cathedrals, then Esma would be Gaudí’s La Sagrada Família.
Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
Annoyances in the Balkans
Balkans
Relentless Homophobia Rages in the Balkans
Be IN-tolerant! Be normal!, appeals a poster (pictured above) that recently flooded the streets of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
As the first gay pride parade in Bulgaria is about to take place, amid strong opposition by nationalistic organisations and a large part of society, the high levels of persistent homophobia in the country and the Full Story
Insiders' Advice
Is it easy to drive in the Balkans? Depends. If you are looking for adrenalin, this is a cheap way to get it. Expats say the best tactics is not to get annoyed.
Full Story
How to pick the right time to go? Winter is beautiful in the high mountains, the problem is, it can be so cold! Then again, who cares how cold it is - the locals have a cheap cure: heavy red wine. Sometimes warmed up.
Full Story
You can't trust local maps. Nor some international travel guides. One of them, for instance, says, that Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina flows FROM the Adriatic towards the inland of the Balkans, never reaching the sea. OK, how about the Neretva delta and channel in Croatia?
Full Story
The Big Book of Travelling
United States
The Rise of Burlesque in New York: Tassels and the City
Burlesque – the more audacious relative of commedia dell'arte, is in revival. A reality in “upside down style”, this creative, witty and softer version of striptease is back on stage, following an absence of nearly 80 years. In New York, Anjeza Bojku scoped out several burlesqee venues for BalkanTravellers.com. Full Story
Thailand
A Short Guide to the Peculiarities of Thai Food
Travel News
3 July 2008 | A direct flight will soon connect Macedonia’s capital to Monenegro’s coast, Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski announced during his official visit to Montenegro, following a meeting with his counterpart Filip Vujanovic.
Full Story
