The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Haki Abazi, said that he hopes that by the end of the year, Kosovo will receive a positive response “regarding the dynamism of the visa liberalization process”. “What was said today is that this process will continue”, Abazi said.

Abazi made these statements after the meeting of the members of the Commission with the ambassador of France in Pristina, Olivier Guérot. On October 13, at the meeting of the visa working group of the Council of the European Union, French officials conditioned the visa process for Kosovo with the operationalization of the security system in Europe, ETIAS. Abazi said that in the meeting with the French ambassador, the latter expressed support for visa liberalization for Kosovo, but added that there are “some concerns that need to be addressed”.

“We argued about what it means for the citizens of Kosovo that this process does not have a complete clarity. We have also received answers. It is a club of EU states that is conducting negotiations on all aspects, including ETIAS as a system that does not necessarily only affect Kosovo, but affects Kosovo as well. We have again argued at the level of what Kosovar citizens expect from this process”, said Abazi.

The European Commission has recommended the liberalization of visas for Kosovo in 2018. State officials in Kosovo have said that it would be unfair to impose new conditions in the visa liberalization process for Kosovo. Citizens of Kosovo are the only ones in the region subject to the visa regime when traveling to the Schengen Area.

/Klara Ruci/