Last Monday, the European Commission presented the latest progress report on efforts by Western Balkan countries to meet criteria for joining the EU's visa-free travel area. Macedonia was the country that achieved greatest progress, with Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked lowest. The progress report is available on the web-site of European Stability Initiative (ESI).

The set benchmarks were “document security”, “illegal migration and readmission”, “public order and security” and “external relations and fundamental rights, and each country was given a rating of 1 to 3, where one is “meets all benchmarks” and 3 is “does not meet the benchmarks”. European Commissioner of Justice, Freedom and Security Jacques Barrot announced that proposals to abolish visas for citizens of the countries that meet benchmarks will be presented as soon as possible.

In addition to Macedonia, whose citizens could travel to EU without visas starting on January 1, 2010, Serbia and Montenegro met most of the Criteria, while Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina fail to meet any of the criteria. Kosovo was not included by this evaluation process.

The initial report was published in November 2008, followed by several visits of EC expert missions to the countries of the Western Balkans, to complete the report with new findings. The report was sent to EU member states for review, after which the European Commission will present the final version of the report to be adopted.