At the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum of Justice and Home Affairs, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos called governments in the region to do more to fight visa-free travel regime abuses.
“With regard to visa liberalization, I am happy to say that it remains one of the core achievements of the Western Balkan countries. It has strengthened the rule of law and increased people-to-people contacts,” Avramopoulos said.
“But the year 2013 saw a considerable influx of persons who travelled visa-free to the EU and then abused asylum procedures. 2014 may become even worse. We need immediate action from each government to reduce asylum abuse associated with visa-free travel,” he said.
He welcomed measures undertaken so far, especially stepping up of border controls and cooperation with the EU, prosecution of facilitators of irregular migration and organised media campaigns for citizens.
“But governments need to do more: they need to tackle high youth unemployment and integrate vulnerable populations, like the Roma,” Avramopoulos added.
According to him, “more efforts should be made on the fight against organised crime and corruption” as well as the continuous political commitment “in order to keep the reform process on-track”.
European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said that continuing justice reform should be a priority as “there is a lot of work to do,” adding that Western Balkans countries would have EU’s support in this field.
