European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) and the King Baudouin Foundation sponsored the conference “Does It Really Matter? Visa Facilitation in the Western Balkans: Monitoring of the New Agreements.”
The Visa Facilitation Agreements signed by the EU with five Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia) came into force on January 1, 2008. Designed to facilitate “people-to-people” contacts between the citizens of the EU and Western Balkans, they allow some citizens to travel and conduct business in the Schengen zone without over-burdensome administrative procedures. However, monitoring has shown that the implementation of these agreements by EU member states is defective, and that the agreements are not achieving their intended results.
The project reports, launched at this conference, are available for download on the ECAS website. The project was undertaken by ECAS together with Vesta Association, Bosnia–Herzegovina; European Movement Albania; Centre for Civic Education, Montenegro; Citizens’ Pact for South Eastern Europe, Serbia; and the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, supported by the King Baudouin Foundation and the Open Society Institute East-East Program.
The Open Society Institute-Brussels continues to advocate for visa free regime and to facilitate coordination between different NGOs advocating for the abolition of Schengen visas for citizens from the Western Balkans region.