Spain has not been the exception and since January 1, Kosovars can enter all of the 27 countries that make up the Schengen free movement area without a visa. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday that from the first day of the year the ordinary passport of Kosovo is accepted as valid in Spain, although it was pointed out that this decision “does not change the position of non-recognition” of the former Serbian province as an independent State. .
By confirming the opening of borders, Foreign Affairs validated what was announced late on Saturday by the Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, that Spain was recognizing the passports of its nationals. “The good news continues. For our citizens and for the State,” he celebrated in a note on his social networks.
January 1 is the date on which Kosovo joined the visa-free regime in the Schengen area, an area of ??free movement – ??without internal border controls – that includes 23 of the 27 member countries of the European Union ( EU) plus the four members of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
In April last year, the European Parliament confirmed the agreement between Kosovo and the EU for the elimination of visas for short-stay trips – up to 90 days for each period of 180 –, which means that its citizens can travel through the Schengen area. to visit relatives or do business like other nationals of the Western Balkan region.
With the announcement of the agreement with Kosovo, however, the European Commission warned that Spain would be the only country in the Schengen area that would not apply the visa liberalization agreement for Kosovo. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, then explained that the policy of non-recognition of the former Serbian province by Spain entailed the non-recognition of Kosovar passports, a measure “that has been applied consistently.”
In addition to Spain, there are four other countries in the EU that do not recognize Kosovo: Romania and Cyprus, which do not yet belong to the Schengen area although the first will do so in the coming months, and Greece and Slovakia, which are in Schengen and accept the Kosovar passports. And Spain finally accepts them too. “Without this modification, the holders of these passports would have had problems legally visiting non-recognizing states,” indicated from Foreign Affairs.
They also stressed that regarding the official Spanish position on Kosovo there is no change. The non-recognition of its sovereignty – declared unilaterally in 2008 by the Parliament of Pristina – and the referral to talks on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia under the auspices of the EU are maintained.
“Spain favors and will continue to favor the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue as a way to resolve this solution and seeks to minimize its impact on citizens,” Foreign Affairs points out.
