2024-01-01 20:26:27
This is a big step for Kosovo. Since Monday, a European Union visa waiver regime will allow Kosovo nationals to travel to Europe’s borderless zone. They will be able to travel to the Schengen zone without a passport or visa for periods of up to 90 days within a 180-day period.
“This day is important. A great injustice has been removed and a great right has been won,” said Prime Minister Albin Kurti, at Pristina airport, greeting the 20 winners of a game organized by the government as part of a campaign aimed at publicize the new rules. “It’s a big relief… it feels good,” one of the winners, Rushit Sopi, a 48-year-old businessman, told AFP before boarding for Vienna. At the head of a company producing doors and windows, he travels regularly throughout the European Union. “Each visa cost me 300 euros. When I changed my passport, I realized that the visas for the EU had cost me 2,500 euros,” he added.
An independence little recognized for years
Kosovo, with a population of 1.8 million, is the last of the six Western Balkan countries to benefit from such a regime. The reform is seen by this former province of Serbia, which proclaimed its independence in 2008, as a key step towards full recognition.
According to the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, Kosovo met all the necessary criteria for the visa-free regime in 2018, including border and migration management. But approval was delayed by France and the Netherlands, concerned about the possibility of new migration waves, as well as five other EU members (Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain). ). These five countries do not recognize the independence of Kosovo, which presented its official application for membership of the EU in December 2022.
“Second class citizens”
“Until now, Europe treated us like second-class citizens,” said Agim Gosalci, a 61-year-old engineer. The EU has been mediating between Kosovo and Serbia for years to try to resolve tensions between the two neighbors, but has so far failed to achieve a breakthrough in normalizing relations. Before the EU removed the visa regime for Kosovo, Kosovar passport holders could travel visa-free to only 14 countries around the world.
In recent months, the Pristina government has carried out an awareness campaign to encourage people not to abuse the freedom to travel by seeking employment in the EU. On Monday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who is leading the campaign himself, will address the first Kosovo residents who will travel from Pristina airport to the EU without a visa.
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