MADRID – Spain has recognized the passport issued by Kosovo, allowing citizens from the country to travel visa-free to the country.
Interestingly, the development comes even though Spain does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
A document published on Friday on the website of the European Commission’s Department for Migration and Home Affairs confirmed that from January 1, Spain recognizes ordinary passports issued by Kosovo.
“This does not imply in any form formal recognition of Kosovo as an independent state,” the document read.
Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi confirmed on Saturday that the ‘good news continues for our citizens and our country’.
Bislimi continued that while visa-free movement started on January 1, Spain has now been added to the countries of the Schengen area where people from Kosovo can travel through liberalisation, where previously the main obstacle was the non-recognition of the passport.
As far as the recognition of Kosovo is concerned, the country’s Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz confirmed that the recognition of the passport ‘does not constitute, by any means, an official recognition of Kosovo as an independent state’ by Madrid.
Madrid’s relaxation comes days after the visa liberalization program of the European Union for Kosovo nationals was implemented, allowing them to travel to the borderless Schengen zone without the need for a visa.
The initiation of this system permits Kosovars to enter the passport-free Schengen zone for periods of up to 90 days within any 180 days, a country last among the six nations in the Western Balkans to receive this waiver.
This visa relaxation is also being seen as a pivotal move towards gaining complete recognition and joining the European Union in the future.
The European Commission, the EU’s administrative body, confirmed that Kosovo met all the necessary criteria for the visa-free regime back in 2018; the delay was due to the opposition by France and the Netherlands, citing concerns about potential increased migration flows.
Moreover, five other EU members — Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain — declined recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, prompting a delay in the visa waiver.
Presently, the citizens of Kosovo can merely enter a little more than a dozen countries without the need for a visa but the EU’s relaxation offers more travel choices to the citizens.
