EU: Serbia has promised to align its visa policy with the EU

N1

Serbia has promised that it will align its visa policy with that of the European Union (EU), said European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson following a meeting of the EU Home Affairs Council.

“We have already reached out to the highest level. My president Ursula von der Leyen reached out directly to (Serbian) President Vucic. We have got promises that Serbia will align its visa policy with ours starting with some of the nationalities that are really urgent now, like the Tunisians, the Burundians and the Indians,” said Johansson.

The Commissioner did not rule out the possibility of “punishing” Serbia or any other country in the region by revoking the visa-free regime, but added that this is not discussed at this time.

“We will work very closely with Serbia and our other Western Balkan partners and I expect them to align and this is probably what will happen. I will not exclude other measures if that does not happen but my starting point, and this is also the good cooperation that we have, is that they have promised to align,” said Johansson.

The Commissioner said she will have an opportunity to discuss this with Western Balkans leaders at several meetings planned in the coming weeks – in Berlin, Prague and Tirana.

“There will be several occasions to confirm that we will have the alignment that is necessary,” she said.

In recent months, there has been an increased number of illegal migrants coming into the EU from Tunisia, Burundi and India, while entry into the EU territory via the Western Balkans route is three times higher than via other routes.