Government of Kosovo: EU to reconsider the decision to abolish visas for holders of Serbian passports from Kosovo

The Government of Kosovo has expressed concern about the European Commission's proposal to abolish visas for holders of Serbian passports living in Kosovo's territory and requested that the European Union reconsider this proposal.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, stated on Facebook that the proposal of the European Commission regarding passports issued by the Coordination Center of Serbia had not been discussed with the Government of Kosovo.

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"Illegal passports issued by the Coordination Center of Serbia are considered to imply that municipalities in Kosovo fall under the jurisdiction of Serbia, and this is a violation of our sovereignty. It is unacceptable", Bislimi wrote.

He emphasized that the Government of Kosovo called on the EU to "treat these documents as illegal, just as it treats other parallel documentation".

The European Commission proposal is justified by the fact that visa liberalization will begin to be implemented on January 1, 2023.

Bislimi said that visa liberalization for Kosovo did not mean that members of the Serbian community would be excluded from liberalization because, according to him, they could obtain passports issued by Kosovo.

"Our Government has already implemented the procedure for the Serbs in Kosovo to obtain passports. Recently, there has been a significant interest among citizens in obtaining Kosovo passports. Compared to last year, we have seen an increase of 29 percent", Bislimi pointed out.