European Parliament (EP) Rapporteur for Visa Liberalisation Tanja Fajon stated that the mechanism for suspension of non-visa regime for western Balkan countries would not be adopted in the foreseeable future since the talks in the European institutions on the introduction of the mechanism failed.
The main problem lies in the fact that certain countries, headed by Germany, wanted to re-open already agreed chapters in the mechanism which was discussed by the EU and the European Council.
The EP suggestion was very flexible and better for the western Balkans than the original text, Fajon said and added that the institution issued the quota and introduced a formulation which states that the non-visa regime can be suspended only in case of exceptional inflow of asylum-seekers, Fajon said.
We agreed that it should stay this way and that only reciprocity should be discussed from now on, she added that some countries headed by Germany asked for a change in the already reached agreement to which the EP did not agree, she added.
The EP, European Commission and the European Council have been conducting talks for a while now concerning the introduction of the suspension of the non-visa regime.
The Belgrade-based daily Večernje Novosti learnt from well-informed sources that the said countries are the same six states that signed the letter whereby they asked for an acceleration of the suspension mechanism, and that the move was drawn out of fear from excessive number of false asylum seekers.
The fiercest advocate of this step was Germany which headed the group consisting of France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, the daily reports.
