May 17 (SeeNews) - Kosovo is optimistic that its citizens will be allowed to travel visa-free across the European Union by the end of this year, the country's EU integration minister Dhurata Hoxha told SeeNews on Thursday.
"I think the most significant progress that we need to achieve by the end of the year is to enable our citizens to travel visa-free because Kosovo has fulfilled the conditions and we need the EU now to deliver on the promise, on the roadmap that we have fulfilled," Hoxha told SeeNews at an event organised by the Vienna Economic Forum on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Sofia.
"So we expect a positive recommendation from the Commission and then obviously the decision making process so that our citizens can travel visa-free because currently we remain the only isolated country in Europe," Hoxha said.
"We are optimistic that this will happen within or by the end of this year," she added.
While Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have already been granted visa-free regime for travel to Europe’s borderless Schengen zone, Kosovo remains the only country in the Western Balkans whose citizens need visas to travel to EU member states.
In March, Kosovo's parliament ratified the border demarcation deal with Montenegro - a key EU requirement for visa liberalisation.
Kosovo, considered to be a potential candidate for EU membership by the European Commission, declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
In 2016, Kosovo signed with the EU a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), which entered into force on April 1 of that year.
However, the country is still waiting to be granted an official candidate status, before it can open membership talks.