EU Moves Closer to Reinstating Visas for Western Balkans
The European Parliament’s lead negotiator has reached an agreement with member states to temporarily reimpose visa requirements for people coming from theWestern Balkans.
“The [European] commission is free to decide whether or not the visa will become suspended, the key point is that this is not something that is compulsory for the commission,” said Spanish conservative MEP Agustin Diaz de Mera, the parliament's point man in the talks, according to EUobserver.
Short-stay visa requirements for the EU were recently lifted for five Balkan states, but an upsurge of reportedly unfounded asylum demands from the region prompted member states last year to pressure the European Commission to tackle the problem.
EUobserver reminds that Mera reached a compromised text with member states in late June after two-year-long negotiations on an existing file to amend the visa regulation which would allow, among other measures, the commission to re-imposevisas under certain conditions.
In 2012, the largest number of asylum-seekers to the EU, at over 53,000 or 50% more than in 2011, came from the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia).
Source: http://www.novinite.com
(11.07.2013)