Macedonia ripe for visa-free EU travel: report
(BRUSSELS) - The European Union could rapidly lift visa requirements for citizens of Macedonia, but those in Serbia and Montenegro do not yet fulfill the conditions, according to a European Commission report.
The report, posted on the Internet site of the European Stability Institute, said Macedonia alone met criteria for document security, illegal immigration, public order, external relations and basic rights.
Macedonia has been an official candidate to join the bloc since 2005 but it has not been given a date to begin accession talks.
Serbia, whose hopes of joining the 27-nation EU are being held up by the Netherlands over Belgrade's cooperation with an international war crimes court, only gets top marks for document security.
It is deemed to have met "a majority of benchmarks" on the other criteria.
The EU already has eased visa restrictions for Serbia, making them since the start of last year cheaper and easier to obtain for students, athletes, journalists, people visiting family or working with companies in the bloc.
The report, based on information gathered by EU experts from January to March but not made public by the commission, gave the same score to Montenegro, which officially applied for EU membership in December.
Albania and Bosnia were deemed to be "on the right track" but do "not yet fully meet the benchmarks". Kosovo was not assessed and Croatians already have visa-free access to the EU.
The commission declined Monday to confirm the information in the report but said that visa liberalisation for non-EU member states in the Balkans would be discussed soon with the countries concerned.
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