Dimitrov: Accession to the Schengen Area is a highly complicated process

Source: Kosovo Online

European Union expert Djordje Dimitrov assessed that accession to the Schengen Area is a highly complicated process that requires a great deal from countries wishing to join, above all alignment with the European Union’s visa and foreign policy.

In Serbia’s case, as he noted, this would mean the immediate introduction of visas for Russia and China.

“It also requires full alignment with negotiating Chapter 24, where Serbia is not performing well. This falls within Cluster 1, which concerns the fundamentals on which the European Union insists. It requires much more as well. It requires accession to the Schengen Information System, which the Western Balkan member states have not joined,” Dimitrov told Kosovo Online.

According to him, accession to the Schengen Area also requires reforms concerning border control, police cooperation, and judicial cooperation, areas in which, as he stated, all Western Balkan countries currently have considerable room for improvement.

Commenting on the statement by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos regarding the integration of candidate countries into parts of the EU single market, as well as the energy and digital networks, Dimitrov said this is already something the European Union has been working on intensively, and that the Growth Plan was primarily introduced with the aim of economic integration.

“The European Union is working on the so-called gradual accession of the Western Balkans, namely candidate countries, into the European Union, and this is primarily reflected through accession to the common European market and a series of measures aimed above all at the economic integration of candidate countries prior to membership,” Dimitrov stated.

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric stated, following the informal meeting of EU and Western Balkan foreign ministers held in Brussels on May 11, that Serbia’s message was that it wants to see the opening of the Schengen area to the entire region as quickly as possible.