madam president the alde group firmly and consistently supports the goal of eu accession for all the western balkan countries
we are aiming to equip their citizens to join an integrated free movement area with a single market and common values
freedom of short-term travel is a vital part of preparation for that
the commission and the council obviously share that goal so why on earth has the commission managed to put forward such an ill-judged and divisive proposal
the liberal group certainly does not want to undermine the pressure for high standards of passport and border security and the rule of law more generally but this exercise has to be fair consistent and effective
it is not as if there are no anomalies at present
for instance serbia and montenegro have been included in the july proposal although they did not meet the benchmarks at the date of the proposal they are expected to do so in the future
then there is the requirement for biometric passports of which bosnia has now issued forty zero by the way but croatians who have benefited from visa-free travel for some time do not need one
we are saying that serbia's stabilisation and association agreement cannot be progressed while <unk> stays hidden since it shows lack of control over the security services
but for visa waiver they are deemed to meet the requirements of block three public order and security some contradiction here
the way to keep bosnia and albania up to the mark would be to include them in the legal scope of this proposed regulation but to make the actual implementation of visa waiver conditional on a commission declaration of compliance in fact similar to that which the commission needs to make this autumn about serbia and montenegro
the process would be exactly the same though a bit later
any prolonged delay for bosnia and albania and the complete exclusion of kosovo will have very divisive and detrimental consequences encouraging the search for croatian serbian or in the case of kosovars macedonian passports and undermining the integrity and governance of bosnia and kosovo in particular
i cannot believe the commission and the council intend to pursue this damaging path
