Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-09-16-Speech-3-183"
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"en.20090916.17.3-183"2
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"Madam President, President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, we support, of course, the Commission’s proposals, as they mark a very important step for the three countries in the region just mentioned, which will enjoy a visa-free regime as of 1 January 2010.
I myself am from a country and of a generation which enthusiastically welcomed the lifting of the visa regime prior to our country becoming a member of the European Union. I would also say that this is the first and most important sign that things really are moving in the right direction, and that one day, the final destination of these countries will be the European Union.
At the same time, I cannot help but express, to some extent, my astonishment at the Commission’s excessively administrative approach to this matter. Although, on the one hand, technical matters are important, in the sense that compliance is needed and the countries have to fulfil the necessary conditions to become part of the European Union, and therefore be granted this visa-free travel facility, the Commission’s decision to exclude Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to some extent, beggars comprehension. It fails to reflect the delicate nature of this issue in the region. It underestimates the influence it could have on the future development of relations between the countries of the region, and the attitude of ordinary citizens in the region to this decision made by the European Commission.
For this reason, we believe that the European Commission’s decision should be reviewed to include Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a clear timetable setting out when these countries could be included in the visa-free regime, subject to fulfilling specific conditions.
In this respect, this issue is particularly delicate with regard to the population of Kosovo. Our question is therefore: when does the European Commission intend to initiate a dialogue on visas with Kosovo, and has it considered what the consequences would be, in terms of Kosovo’s stability if this dialogue is not started as soon as possible?"@en1
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