Kosovo closer to visa liberalisation talks: Commissioner

(OHRID) - Kosovo, whose citizens are the only from the Balkans that need visas for EU, has made significant progress in talks with Brussels on visa-free regime, a top official said Monday.

"We sent a mission about a month ago and we saw the considerable improvement have been made in Kosovo," European home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem told reporters here but stressed that it needed to do more.

Kosovo, which unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, has remained the only territory in the Western Balkans whose citizens need visas to travel in the Schengen zone covering 25 European countries.

Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia were granted visa-free regime in December 2009, while Albania and Bosnia earned it a year later. Pristina is yet to get a road map clarifying conditions needed to be met before Kosovo citizens are alowed to travel without visa throughout EU.