Citizens of Kosovo will be eligible to travel visa-free for short-term stays to Schengen Zone countries starting from January 1, 2024, the German Embassy in Kosovo has said.
The European Union adopted visa-free travel for holders of Kosovo’s passport in April this year, emphasising that they would be eligible to travel without additional requirements such as visas, starting from next year, at the latest.
However, concerns were raised after France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, said that his country might review the commitments it has made on political as well as economic issues of visas for Kosovo and Serbia.
France and Germany have made their promises on visa policies and other economic issues, which will be reviewed if both parties do not behave responsibly. We must be very careful in this regard, especially when the stability of the Western Balkans is at risk.
Paris’ comments were not so welcomed. Besides, they were criticised by the Rapporteur for Kosovo in the European Parliament, Viola von Cramon. According to her, visa-free travel for Kosovars is not and should not be linked with the dialogue with Serbia.
Von Cramon said that the European Union has to keep its promise to permit citizens of Kosovo to travel visa-free from next year.
Considering that such a decision would have a negative impact, the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, emphasised that any suspension of visa-free travel to the EU for Kosovo would “kill the dialogue with Serbia once and for all.
Responding to Macron’s comments, the German Federal Government also confirmed to Express Newspaper earlier this year that the country’s position remains unchanged when it comes to this issue.
The German position remains unchanged: We support the decisions on the LIBERALIZATION of visas that belong to the Council of the European Union.
Kosovars are eager to travel to other countries without visas. However, they have been waiting to do so for more than ten years now, after the process has yet to be finalised, even though the Balkan country met all the needed conditions, as estimated by the European Commission in 2018.
Both Kosovo and Serbia aspire to acquire membership in the European Union. However, Brussels highlighted that they should first solve their dispute through a mediated dialogue.
Kosovo is placed in the 186th position in the VisaGuide.World Passport Index, which ranks the passports of a total of 199 countries in terms of the power of their passport.
With a passport score of 12.55, it permits its holders to travel visa-free to just 13 countries and passport-free to just two countries, while visas are required when planning to travel to a total of 131 countries.
