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On 15 June 2009 the EU Council concluded that the ‘Council encourages the European Commission to present, as soon as possible, a legislative proposal amending Regulation 539/2001, as it applies to the Member States, in order to achieve a visa free regime ideally by the end of 2009 with those countries that will have met all the benchmarks.'

For months, EU officials have repeatedly stated that Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia appear to have fulfilled all the criteria set out on their roadmap towards visa liberalization, i.e the introduction of biometric passports, modernisation of their border crossing points, readmission agreement, establishment of closer cooperation with Europol and strengthening the fight against corruption and organised crime. The EU has invested so much in the defence of both Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina; but why have they shot themselves in the foot by excluding these countries together with Albania from full implementation of visa liberalization?

Leaving aside the problem of the five EU countries regarding the Kosovo independence, this EU decision is such an obviously flawed and discriminatory policy towards the Albanians in Kosovo and Albania as well as the Bosnian Muslim population in Bosnia & Herzegovina that it could put at risk stability in both Kosovo and Bosnia. This could have broader, negative repercussions in an ethnically volatile country such as Bosnia. There may be some who will look for a sinister subtext to this seemingly ‘technical' issue.

This openly discriminatory policy against these two nations could potentially backfire on the EU. Regrettably, the EU is doing nothing but reaffirming that its memory is too short. It has learned nothing from its consecutive mistakes during the 1990s.

It is striking that the EU seems to have accepted that Serbs from Kosovo will have no problem in obtaining Serbian passports both because they are eligible for dual citizenship and because they can easily record their residence as somewhere in the territory of Serbia. The same would apply in the case of both Croat and Serb communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The EU's argument can be further undermined since it is likely that as early as July 2010 Bosnia and particularly Albania (which recently was praised for holding free and fair elections according to European standards) could join the Schengen White List.

Now, it is important to be clear about what could potentially happen in Kosovo and Bosnia as a consequence of the EU making another mess of its foreign affairs. In the short term the visa liberalization issue could potentially play into the hands of radicals in Kosovo - further disheartening the young population there - and more so in Bosnia where the Muslim population could view this as European Islamophobia. In the long term, however, the EU's openly discriminatory policy vis-à-vis Kosovo could have a number of rather positive consequences. First, the EU, by confronting Serbia with a fait accompli, as far as Kosovo's independence is concerned, may convince the majority of the population in Serbia and its political elite that Kosovo is gone for good. This could further weaken Serbia's already shaky argument regarding the legality of Kosovo's independence before the International Court of Justice. Secondly, by making it clear that the visa liberalization will not apply to the residents of Kosovo the EU will put off some Kosovars from obtaining Serbian passports.

Unfortunately, for the Kosovar Albanians themselves (who have been unjustifiably discriminated for decades through no fault of their own) this flawed EU visa liberalization policy will come with a huge price tag as far as their freedom of movement is concerned. They will be denied this basic right - hopefully not for long - while their neighbours in the Balkans will be able to enjoy unrestricted movement within the Schengen Zone, a way to faster EU integration.

The article is an extract from a paper entitled ‘European Union Foreign Policy Vis-à-Vis the Western Balkans: An Ongoing Puzzle' , presented at the 6th EuPRA bi-annual Congress, 23-25 July 2009, TIRANA - BRIDGING DIVIDES: EUROPEAN PEACE ARCHITECTURE OF INTEGRATION AND ENGAGEMENT.

Previous Balkan Week articles on Atlantic Community:

• Balkan Week: Could Current Conflicts Spark a New Balkan War? 
• Balkan Week: Daniel Korski: Solving Europe's Bosnia Crisis
• Balkan Week: Elizabeth Pond: Kosovo: Balkan Success Story and Future EU Member?
• Balkan Week: Tomislav Marsic: The Blocked Bloc