By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Dec 7 2005 (IPS)

The International Crisis Group has proposed liberalisation of the restrictive visa regime by the EU for some Balkans countries.

“The present visa regime with the countries of Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro including Kosovo) is fostering resentment, inhibiting progress on trade, business, education and more open civil societies, and as a result contributing negatively to regional stability,” says the group, a non-governmental organisation working in the area of conflict prevention and resolution.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has suggested “selective liberalisation for certain identified groups and visa facilitation for all applicants – involving a simplified, speedier and less painful process.” The first to feel the eased regime should be students, journalists and business people, the group says in its latest analysis of the situation in the Balkans.

The response from vice-president of the European Commission Franco Frattini was not very encouraging. “Abolishing the visa regime currently is not an option,” he said in Brussels. The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union (EU).

Frattini said the issue will be on the EU agenda once the Western Balkans countries enter the substantial phase of their EU membership process in the next decade.

The ICG suggestion was widely publicised by Serbian media, because it raised one of the most painful issues the nation has faced in more than a decade and a half.

Travel was easy from former Yugoslavia since the 60s. Many still remember the ‘red passport’ that could take you anywhere in Europe. Visas were needed only for Australia, Canada, the United States and South Africa.

Millions from former Yugoslavia used the passports to migrate, or for visits abroad. But the situation changed dramatically with the outbreak of the wars in the early 90s.

Serbia was punished with introduction of visas for Europe in 1991 after former leader Slobodan Milosevic turned down an EU plan for peace in Croatia. The war in Bosnia had not even begun at the time. That visa situation has continued even though peace prevails, and Milosevic fell from power five years ago.

“Telling the story of free travel has become the national epic here,” Serbian sociologist Stjepan Gredelj told IPS. “People younger than 30 or 25 do not remember it and cannot believe such a thing was possible. They grew up in isolation and under claustrophobic circumstances – wherever you want to go in the West, you need a visa.”

Long queues of several hundred people form in front of EU embassies each morning. Dozens of documents are sometimes necessary for applying for a visa. They include invitation letters by hosts from EU countries, copies of documents (such as employment record, residence or citizenship papers) verified by police and notaries, bank statements and property records.

A bunch of Serbian documents is also needed – on health, employment, bank accounts, spouses’ employment, and children’s attendance at schools.

Copies of former EU visas are asked for, as well as air tickets. Prices of visas range from 50 dollars for single entry to 150 dollars for multi-entry visas. Many embassy staff say privately that the visa regime brings good income for diplomatic missions.

“These things turn my brother’s life upside down each time I want to visit,” said Marijana Simic (42), standing in front of the German embassy. “This is so humiliating, as if he and I were some kind of criminals.”

The visa regime prevents any normal communication with the West after years of isolation, Gredelj says. “To ordinary people, the promises of EU association or membership some time in the future remain empty if you still live in a ghetto. This particularly goes for the young.”

Recent statistics show that more than 75 percent of people under 25 have never travelled abroad. Most say they do not want to because of visa troubles.

EU officials say Serbia still has to meet many standards before the visa issue is reconsidered. Its laws have to be synchronised with the EU particularly in regard to human trafficking and organised crime.

But many Serbs believe the EU fears immigration and trouble from the Western Balkans.

“It looks more like they fear or despise us,” Milan Djakovic (23) told IPS as he waited outside the French embassy. “It’s such hypocrisy when they (the Westerners) speak about human rights or equality for all.”

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