Visas for Europe

Visas for Europe

The European Parliament has endorsed a plan to give citizens from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia the right to visa-free travel in most of the countries of the European Union.

It's expected that EU governments will give final approval to the plan by the end of the year. For citizens of those three countries, this is great news. Anyone who has travelled through the Western Balkans knows that people there feel cut-off and frustrated by the difficulty of obtaining a visa to go to the EU.

The sense of injustice is exasperated by the fact that, in the old days, citizens of Yugoslavia could travel freely around Europe.

But ... that still leaves Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Except it's not quite that simple, as the Economist explains.

Bosnian Croats can easily obtain Croatian passports (with which they can already travel visa-free in much of Europe). Many Bosnian Serbs, meanwhile, have Serbian passports, which means they will soon enjoy the same freedoms. That leaves Bosnia's Muslims, or Bosniaks, excluded, and resentful.

At a time when Bosnia is looking so fragile, this is potentially dangerous.

The EU says it hopes to grant Bosnia and Albania visa-free travel in 2010. But Kosovo is not even being offered that consolation.

In theory, Kosovans can apply for Serbian passports (as Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence). But the EU says it won't grant the same travel rights to Serb-passport holders who are also residents of Kosovo as it will to other Serbs.

Confused? Visa-liberalisation is seen as a cornerstone of EU efforts to stablise the Balkans, but you could easily argue that the current policies are having the opposite effect.