Council of the EU: The visa regime for citizens of Kosovo who have Serbian passports issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia is abolished

The Council of the European Union (EU) made a decision to abolish the visa regime for citizens of Kosovo who are holders of Serbian passports, issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia.

The decision was made at the level of foreign ministers at the last meeting.

Adoption by the Council of the EU ends all legislative processes.

As soon as the regulation enters into force, which will happen on the 20th day from the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, it will begin to be applied in all EU member states.

"Today, the Council of the EU adopted a regulation ensuring that the entire region of the Western Balkans is subject to the same visa regime, by canceling the exclusion that was previously valid for holders of Serbian passports issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia," the EU announcement states.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Marko Đurić, welcomed the EU Council's decision to cancel visas for passport holders issued by the Coordination Directorate of Serbia.

"A small but important victory for the human rights of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija," wrote the head of diplomacy of Serbia on the social network Iks on July 22.

Procedures on the cancellation of the visa regime for citizens of Kosovo who only hold Serbian passports have started in light of the decision on the visa-free regime with Kosovo, which came into force on the first of January this year.

Kosovo does not recognize that passport and holders of those passports cannot fly from the airport in Pristina.

With the abolition of visas for Kosovo passports, Kosovo citizens who only possessed documents issued by the Coordination Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia in Belgrade for citizens in Kosovo, remained the only ones in the region who needed a visa to travel to the Schengen zone.

In November last year, the European Commission proposed the abolition of visas for this category of citizens.

The European Parliament voted on this in April this year.

On this occasion, the Government of Kosovo reacted. The Vice Prime Minister of Kosovo said in November 2023 that "the recognition of these documents undermines the integration of the Serbian community, harms our long-standing efforts (about the integration of Serbs)".