Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-11-Speech-3-240"
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"en.20091111.20.3-240"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, twenty years ago, my fellow countrymen from East Germany obtained the freedom to travel. A few years later, Slobodan Milošević arbitrarily jeopardised and then took away the freedom of travel for Serbs and then for all other countries in the region. How often since 2000 have we in this House, in declarations and in public debates, wished for the freedom of travel – visa-free travel – for the countries of South-Eastern Europe. We know that the EU cannot achieve this alone, as the national governments need to agree to it. We need to overcome the anxieties in our population. Criminals are everywhere – they do not need a visa! They cross borders without a visa. That is therefore not something that we should be concerned about.
It is about the young generation, who, with the help of visa-free travel, can finally go wherever they want to. We are therefore very pleased that the citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia will now finally be able to travel freely again. How wonderful! There is still a hint of sadness in that Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo cannot yet join them, but in December, we expect the Commission to acknowledge the huge progress that Albania has made and to see that Bosnia and Herzegovina has also made a certain amount of improvement. Unfortunately, there are politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina who are less concerned about the interests of their citizens, as they are secure in the knowledge that they themselves, of course, have visa-free travel. I therefore believe that we need to ensure that this is possible by next summer. I hope that Mr Barrot will help us in that. However, we must not forget Kosovo. It must not be the last remaining black mark. We are obliged to help Kosovo to meet the benchmarks. It cannot do it alone. Visa-free travel is a deeply humanitarian act. I am pleased that we were all in a position to make this happen. Thank you for this opportunity, Mr Barrot."@en1
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