The European Union expects Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a candidate country, to fully comply with EU policies in numerous areas, including visa policy.
“Since citizens of certain third countries, including Turkey, China, Russia, Azerbaijan, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, are required to have visas to enter the EU, Bosnia and Herzegovina is expected to ensure progress in harmonizing its visa policy with that of the EU,” said the spokesman of the EU Delegation and the Office of the EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ferdinand Koenig, in response to Fena’s question.
He added that progress has recently been made in harmonizing the visa policy of BiH with the introduction of the visa regime for Bahrain from September 2023.
“We invite BiH to harmonize its visa policy with EU policy individually for all countries, which is important not only for the process of BiH’s accession to the EU, but also for the adequate functioning of BiH’s visa-free regime with the EU, which has already been established,” said Koenig.
According to him, the EU continuously monitors the fulfillment of requests for exemption from visas by countries whose citizens have been granted visa-free access to the EU.
“There are no immediate plans to introduce a visa regime with BiH, bearing in mind that stronger integration of the Western Balkans into the EU is one of the goals of EU policies. However, the EU reserves the right to reintroduce the visa regime if the conditions for visa exemption are not met,” said Koenig.
He noted that in the Sixth Report on the visa suspension mechanism, which the European Commission submitted to the European Parliament and the European Council in October 2023, it is stated that, in addition to harmonizing the visa policy with the list of countries that require a visa for the EU, Bosnia and Herzegovina also expects to quickly negotiate, sign and ratify the Status Agreement on Frontex with the EU, and to resolve the issue of cooperation on readmission signaled by the member states, Fena reports.
