ELDR Focus Year

Young people of three Balkan countries can for the first time freely experience Europe.

If Maja from Belgrade wants to visit an art exhibition in Budapest, if Dejan from Skopje wants to book a low-cost flight for his New Year’s visit to Berlin or if Milica from Podgorica wants to attend a youth camp in Sweden, they can all finally do it from the 19th of December 2009 onwards freely, without a long, expensive and uncertain procedure of applying for a Schengen visa.

Such simple short travels, whichare for most young Europeans a matter of a few clicks on the internet were for young Serbians, Macedonians and Montenegrins a painful and weeks-long procedure at EU embassies. The visa requirement effectively prevented or turned away many of them from travelling, thus creating an isolated generation of young Europeans who seldom visited other European countries, and yet, ironically, were supposed to bring about changes in their own societies and prepare them for joining the EU. The responsibility for such a short-sighted policy lies both with the national governments of these countries as well as with the EU and its member states.

Today this barrier to free movement finally comes down. The Young European Federalists (JEF) together with the European party-political youth organisations (European Liberal Youth, Young European Greens and European Free Alliance Youth) and the European Youth Forum (YFJ), an umbrella organisation representing organised youth in Europe, join in the celebrations of this border-free day. We have campaigned long and hard for this day to happen and are delighted that so many young people will from now on enjoy a freer and more European everyday life and that new bonds of friendship will now more easily be created between the young people of these countries and the rest of Europe.

Still, we cannot forget that after 19 December there will still be many young Europeans unable to travel freely in Europe. We hope that the last three countries of the Western Balkans subject to Schengen visa requirements (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo) will attain the right to uncomplicated, visa-free travel in Europe in 2010. The responsibility to end this last unnatural barrier in the region remains both with the EU and the national governments, who need to do their utmost to fulfil the EU’s necessary technical criteria. It is on the EU to assist the countries in question in meeting these criteria.

We also hope that the EU won’t forget about the young Turks, Moldovans, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Georgians and Azerbaijanis, who remain behind the visa barrier.

In the meantime, we wish our imaginary Maja, Dejan and Milica and millions of less imaginary real Serbians, Macedonians and Montenegrins many interesting and fun trips to the rest of Europe!