The Ambassador of France in Kosovo confirms: Visa liberalization is in effect from January 1, 2024
2023-10-18 21:35:39
TiranaPost
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, wanted to give a political message to Kosovo and Serbia, with his statement given yesterday in Tirana, according to which both countries must keep their word. This is what the ambassador of France in Kosovo, Olivier Gerot, declared in an exclusive interview for RTK Prime.
He confirms that there is no decision on the suspension of visas for Kosovo by France and that the liberalization will come into force on January 1, 2024.
"The president was asked at the end of a bilateral visit to Albania, during which relations between France and Albania were strengthened. So, there was a question about the situation in Kosovo and he wanted to put both sides, Kosovo and Serbia, in front of the responsibilities", said Ambassador Guérot.
He further clarified President Macron's statement that he had three messages to Serbia and Kosovo, inviting President Vučić to strongly condemn the September 24 attack, the killing of policeman Afrim Bujaku, as well as the attack as a whole, and that to illuminate the attack as a whole and bring the perpetrators to justice.
"The second message for Kosovo and Serbia regarding the need to organize new elections in the north for reasons that are known and that I do not need to remind. Elections with the participation of Serbs and the return of Serbs to institutions. The third message it had to do with the need to form an association of municipalities with a Serbian majority," said French ambassador Guérot.
He said that at the end of the three expressed requests, addressed simultaneously to President Vučić and the authorities of Kosovo, President Macron recalled that the liberalization of visas that is now in force in Serbia and that will be implemented from January 1, 2024 also in Kosovo, according to for him, it is a positive encouragement, a gesture of good faith and that this gesture was not reciprocal and that it is necessary for both parties to re-engage in dialogue.
"This was a political message that I hope both sides will listen to," said the French ambassador, among other things.
"Today, on October 18, the technical decision is not questioned, but it is really necessary for the political leaders to listen to the president's message. Today, on October 18, nothing has been decided that there will be no liberalization of visas on January 1. There is no technical decision to question the liberalization of visas for Kosovo", said Ambassador Guérot.
