The new phase of the Visa Liberalization Campaign is solemnly launched

Prishtina, 10 October 2018 – Today, in the presence of Prime Minister Haradinaj, Head of EU Office, Apostolova and German Ambassador Heldt, the Ministry of European Integration has launched the new phase of the Visa Liberalization Campaign, where Minister Dhurata Hoxha emphasized the importance of the campaign.

Initially, Minister Hoxha thanked GIZ, the German Embassy and the EU Office for the support since 2012, the time when the long journey of meeting the 95 criteria for visa liberalization began, compared with other Western Balkan countries which had only 41.

The European Commission has given a positive recommendation, the voting in the LIBE Committee and European Parliament was successfully passed, are now we are a step closer to visa liberalization and the last challenge will be voting in the Council, said the Minister.

“We will not stop working towards getting a positive recommendation and the reforms will continue with an even more increased intensity. The next challenge is the member states, a challenge towards which we are working hard. We have taken some steps in order to address the eventual concerns of each member state individually”, said Minister Hoxha, stressing the empowerment of legislation on foreigners, border security and migration in conformity with the European standards, as well as the implementation of repatriation agreements.

With the support of GIZ, we are launching the new phase of the awareness campaign for the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, emphasized the Minister.

“The campaign aims at accessing citizens with the right information on what is and what is not visa liberalization, where and how much can a stay last, and other rules of the Schengen area”, emphasized Minister Hoxha, adding that the Government of Kosovo will support this campaign with further means in addition to the support of GIZ.

“We will all ensure that the messages that will be delivered are appropriate and sufficiently informative for the citizen. We will go to every city, village and neighbourhood so that our citizens will be an active part of this campaign”, said the Minister, adding that in addition to the Government and its departments, the campaign will be expanded and supported by the Assembly and other institutions.

The campaign will be comprehensive and all of us together, with the citizens, will achieve a satisfactory level of awareness so as not to misuse or to compromise liberalization due to lack of information.

“We will listen to the voice of citizens and give clear messages that visa liberalization cannot and should not be misused. Allow me today to take the opportunity to invite all citizens, institutions, civil society, media and missions of member states in Kosovo to be an active part of this campaign because only with this interaction can we be successful”, emphasized Minister Hoxha, thanking the campaign supporters and wishing a successful campaign for our citizens and our country!

Last modified: August 8, 2022