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The European Commission has presented a package of proposals to better protect the EU's external borders and to manage illegal immigration more efficiently. In this package, among other things, the European Commission has also proposed strengthening the mechanisms of suspension of visa liberalization for those countries whose citizens can enter the EU without visas.
Visa liberalization suspension mechanisms already exist under the 2018 regulation.
With the new proposal of the European Commission, the liberalization of visas will be able to be suspended due to the non-adjustment of the visa regime of those countries with the EU visa regime for third-party citizens.
The European Commission has cited the Western Balkans region as an example, which proves that a country can become a transit point for illegal immigrants to the EU because they can enter a neighboring country without a visa.
European Commission sources specifically mentioned Serbia, which had revoked visas for citizens of countries such as Cuba, Tunisia, Burundi, and several other countries to enter Serbia. This had the effect that a number of citizens of these countries entered Serbia without visas and then moved to the European Union.
Only after the insistence of the European Union, Serbia started to adapt its visa regime to that of the European Union. The Commission has also had requests for adaptation to the EU visa regime for other countries in the Balkan region.
Serbia, at the beginning of 2022, has had visa liberalization for 22 countries, which have not had liberalization for movement in the EU. This number is now reduced to 12, but the Commission asks Serbia to continue making progress in this direction.
North Macedonia has made the most progress in adapting to the EU visa policy, while more progress is required from Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
All the countries of the Western Balkan region enjoy visa liberalization by the EU. Even for Kosovo, the EU has approved the decision on visa liberalization and it will start to be implemented from January 1, 2024.
" When these partner countries of the Western Balkans have made progress in adapting the visa regime to that of the EU, this has had an impact on reducing the number of illegal immigrants in the EU through this route," the European Commission's report states .
The European Commission on Wednesday also published the sixth monitoring report of the mechanisms for the suspension of visa liberalization for the countries of the Western Balkans region.
The report concludes that all these countries should take further steps to adapt to EU visa policy and continue their efforts to prevent unfounded asylum applications. Additional efforts should also be made to prevent illegal immigration, as well as the fight against organized crime and corruption ," the EC report states.
According to the current mechanisms for the suspension of visas, this process can be initiated only in some specific cases, such as a sudden and significant increase in the number of illegal immigrants or a risk to national security.
According to the proposal of the European Commission on Wednesday, the reason for the suspension of liberalization is "insufficient adaptation to the EU visa regime, hybrid threats and the existence of granting citizenship for investments".
The EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ylva Johanson, has said that it is very important to stop the practice of selling passports from countries that enjoy visa liberalization.
" There are countries that enjoy visa liberalization and that sell their citizenship to different people, often with criminal records, with changed names, and then they can enter the EU without visas," she said .
With this, she has justified the proposals that the countries, which will sell their citizenship in this way, face the possibility of suspending visa liberalization by the EU.
The vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, has said that a special focus in the common migration policy should be the successful repatriation of those persons who have been refused residence in the territory of the European Union.
He emphasized that at this point, many EU countries have not succeeded in deporting the persons, for whom the relevant decision of the authorities to release the territory of the EU has been issued. This, according to him, has influenced the fact that on the streets of European cities there are people with illegal residence who are involved in acts of crime and terrorism.
" Both the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels and the one in France have been staying illegally, even though they were ordered to leave the territory of these countries ", said Schinas.
He added that no migration management policy will be successful without success in the repatriation of people who cannot stay in the territory of the EU./ REL
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