July 6 (SeeNews) - European Parliament rapporteur on visa liberalisation for Kosovo's citizens, Tanja Fajon, said the vote on scrapping visas for Kosovo citizens will be postponed for September.
The vote largely depends on the ratification of the border agreement with Montenegro by Kosovo's parliament, Fajon said in a Twitter post late on Tuesday.
Serbian news agency Tanjug reported that the vote, which was expected to take place on July 12, has been put off for September 5.
In the beginning of May, the European Commission said it proposed to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament to lift visa requirements for the people of Kosovo by transferring Kosovo to the visa-free list for short-stays in the Schengen area.
Once the proposal would have been adopted, the people of Kosovo with biometric passports would no longer need visas when travelling for short stays of up to 90 days to all EU member states except for Ireland and the UK, as well as the four Schengen associated countries - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, the Commission said at the time.
The proposed exemption concerns only short-stay visas valid for up to 90 days of travel in any 180-day period for business, tourist or family purposes and does not provide for the right to work in the EU.
Back then the Commission said that by the day of adoption of this proposal Kosovo should have ratified the border agreement with Montenegro and strengthened its track record in the fight against organised crime and corruption.
The border agreement was signed last August in Vienna after three years of negotiations between border committees. In accordance with Article 12 of the signed agreement, it will become effective only after both countries have ratified it. Montenegro's parliament ratified the agreement in December. Kosovo's assembly still have not ratified it.
The main opposition party, Vetevendosje, declared that it considers the current agreement on the border issue with Montenegro as illegitimate as it is based only on cadastre maps, whereas, it claims, other maps were deliberately ignored. Therefore, Vetevendosje believes that the current agreement should be cancelled and the negotiation process should start from scratch.
According to a poll, published by the opposition party last week, only 21% of the country's population support the ratification of the current border agreement with Montenegro.