As of 2018, five Western Balkan countries and three Eastern Partnership countries benefit from visa liberalisation to the EU Schengen area. These countries are deemed safe and well-governed, and have been required to meet several criteria in policy areas such as border, migration and asylum management security, external relations and fundamental rights. The European Migration Network (EMN) has now released a study on the impact of visa liberalisation on countries of destination, providing insights to positive and negative trends in 25 EU countries and Norway[1] following visa liberalisation for nationals of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
According to the study, visa liberalisation led to an immediate increase in short-term travel to the countries of destination from visa-free countries and made it easier for third country nationals to travel to the EU and Norway to explore employment opportunities and request residence permits. Ukrainian nationals received the highest number of residence permits. In 2017, their main country of destination was Poland with 545 000 permits issued for remunerated activities, followed by Czech Republic and Italy.
Although several Member States adopted additional or new measures to counter irregular migration, such as setting up joint police investigations, the study confirms that there is little evidence of a link between visa liberalisation and the facilitation of irregular migration or any increase in smuggling or trafficking in human beings. Some Member States, however, observed an increase in criminal activities, particularly by organised crime groups. This phenomenon is being closely monitored and failure to cooperate with EU Member States and Norway in this area may lead to the suspension of visa-free travel for nationals from third countries.
Visa-free travel is an important achievement in regional cooperation. The European Commission, EU Member States and Norway are collaborating with the visa-free Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries, who are actively taking measures to address existing challenges.
Full study can be downloaded here.
Inform can be downloaded here.
Flash can be downloaded here.
