EU To Scrap Visas for Serbs Travelling to Schengen Area on Dec 19

The European Parliament's rapporteur for visa liberalisation for the Western Balkan countries, Tanja Fajon, confirmed that Serbian citizens will be able to conduct visa-free travel to EU member states starting on December 19, Serbia’s EU Integration Minister Bozidar Djelic said in a statement after meeting with Fajon in Brussels.

Twenty-nine countries, including 25 European Union states and non-EU members Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland are bound to the full set of rules in the Schengen Agreement.

Serbia made substantial progress towards EU accession with the signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in April 2008 and with the arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic in August. Karadzic is currently standing trial on charges of genocide and crimes against non-Serb civilians in Bosnia committed during the 1992-95 war there.

($=0.6669 euro)