The government continues to evade the obligation to harmonize visa policy with the European Union (EU), and the list of countries exempt from the visa regime is getting longer instead of shorter, warned civic activist Dina Bajramspahić.
The European Commission recalled that visa-free travel between the EU and Montenegro is a significant achievement that "requires constant vigilance", and that the Montenegrin authorities should remove two countries from the list of countries with a visa-free regime by the end of February, so that the country can receive money from the "Growth Plan for the Western Balkans".
Bajramspahić told ''Vijesti'' that visa policy is a sub-area of the "very well-known" Chapter 24 (justice, freedom, security), on which progress in Podgorica's accession negotiations with Brussels depends.
"Therefore, there is absolutely no room for any avoidance of the obligation to harmonize Montenegro's visa policy with the list of EU countries for which a visa is required, especially in relation to countries that pose a security risk to the EU or tolerate illegal migration," said the interviewee, commenting on the latest government decision on temporary visa exemption for citizens of Egypt, Uzbekistan, Armenia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kazakhstan.
The government made the decision on Thursday during a telephone session, based on the consent of the majority of members. It also decided to amend the Visa Regulation, removing Vanuatu from the list of countries for which visas are not required.
Previously, on December 24th of last year, the Government decided to expand the list of countries whose citizens can stay in Montenegro without a visa for up to 90 days, and added Bahrain to it, while changing the visa-free regime for Saudi Arabia from seasonal to permanent.
The European Commission told "Vijesti" in the fall that the EU expects Montenegro to introduce visas for citizens of 11 countries, including Russia and Belarus. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MVP) did not respond to "Vijesti"'s questions at the time about which countries visas would be introduced for and when. According to the newspaper, these include, in addition to Russia and Belarus, Turkey, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and China.
According to the MFA website, Chinese citizens need a visa to enter Montenegro, with the exception of organized tourist groups and business people.
Bajramspahić recalls that the European Commission expected the two countries to be removed from the list by the end of February, which is the first reporting period related to the "Growth Plan". However, he assesses that the Government "continued with exemptions from the European visa policy" at its session on Thursday.
The European Commission told ''Vijesti'' yesterday that the EU is closely monitoring the development of Montenegro's visa policy, and that the harmonisation of the visa regime "remains crucial for ensuring a well-managed migration and security environment in Montenegro and beyond."
"Visa-free travel between the EU and Montenegro is a significant achievement. But maintaining this achievement requires constant vigilance. Immediate steps should be taken to increase visa policy coherence as part of the engagement and commitment to the European Union, both through our visa agreements and through the accession process," they said.
They recall that the 7th EU Visa Waiver Monitoring Report stated that a more rigorous review of visa-free arrivals of third-country nationals, especially those from countries posing a security risk or irregular migration, would be the minimum interim measure expected from Montenegro, until full alignment.
The Commission states that, through the Reform Agenda under the "Growth Plan", Montenegro has committed to further aligning itself with the EU list of countries requiring visas.
"Montenegro has agreed to remove countries requiring an EU visa from its visa-free list every year. Montenegro will have to meet the condition related to the first reporting period by removing two countries from the list by the end of February, in order to be eligible for the release of funds related to this reform step this year," they said.
Through the Reform Agenda, Montenegro has committed to abolishing visa-free agreements with countries (at least one country per year) for which the EU requires a visa. The starting point, as stated in the Reform Agenda, is the number of 11 countries with non-harmonized visa policies, which will be reviewed at the end of each year.
At the end of October last year, the European Commission adopted the Reform Agenda, the fulfillment of which is a condition for withdrawing money from the Reform and Growth Instrument under the “Growth Plan for the Western Balkans”. The plan is a combination of grants and soft loans totaling six billion euros for the period 2024-2027. 383,5 million euros have been provided for Montenegro, of which 110 million euros are grants and 273,5 million euros are soft loans. The European Commission plans to allocate seven percent of the total amount at the beginning of the implementation of the “Growth Plan” as a kind of pre-financing, and the rest in six semi-annual tranches of support, depending on the degree of implementation of the planned reforms.
The first tranche amounts to around 29 million euros and should be paid at the end of February.
Yesterday, the Government did not respond to questions from "Vijesti" about why they made decisions on temporary exemption from obtaining visas for citizens of Egypt, Uzbekistan, Armenia, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan, and which two countries Montenegro will remove from the list of countries with a visa-free regime by the end of the month, in order to receive funds from the Growth Plan. The Government's Public Relations Bureau responded to "Vijesti" that they forwarded the questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which did not send answers yesterday.
Dina Bajramspahić reminds that the latest, 7th report of the European Commission within the framework of the visa suspension mechanism, published in early December 2024, already highlighted the problem that Montenegro has a visa-free regime with as many as 11 countries that require a visa for the EU. Of the 11, she adds, seven were permanently exempt from the visa requirement (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Qatar, China, Kuwait, Russia, Turkey), while four had a seasonal exemption for tourist reasons (Armenia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia).
According to her, the bearers of the obligation to harmonize are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, while the Ministry of European Affairs, as the coordinator of the entire process, is obliged to alert the Government, the Parliament and the public to the risks and consequences of ignoring European obligations.
Bajramspahić warns that slowing down the dynamics of chapter closure and not closing two planned chapters by June (Chapter 5 - public procurement, and Chapter 4 - free movement of capital), would seriously jeopardize the proclaimed goal of closing all chapters by the end of 2026.
"Over the past few weeks, government representatives have been trying to impose a narrative in public discourse that the closure of the chapter is at risk due to the boycott of the Parliament, while at the same time they themselves have explicitly refused to fulfill the obligations from the Reform Agenda, which they themselves adopted in the Government," she noted.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will propose which countries will be subject to visa requirements.
''Vijesti'' has learned unofficially from the Government that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should propose which countries will be removed from the list of countries exempt from the visa regime by the end of February.
"They have to make a proposal and we have to see what the harms and benefits are for each option," said the newspaper's source.
Bajramspahić emphasizes that the EU did not expect full compliance, but rather gradual compliance, but that the Government refuses to fulfill the European agenda. He believes that it is particularly problematic that for the Government the entire process of Europeanization has been reduced to the adoption of laws in the Parliament, instead of their full implementation, which is lacking.
"However, this is not surprising when we see the attitude towards the implementation of the Reform Agenda, which is a key document at this moment. If we do not close the chapters at the planned pace, the ruling majority will be solely and exclusively responsible for this, which, in addition to being obliged to implement European policies, is also obliged to create a favorable environment for reforms. Shifting responsibility to the opposition is unconvincing and frivolous," says Bajramspahić.
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