The Official Journal of the European Union on December 18 includes the publication of Regulation (EC) No. 1244/2009 of the Council amending the list of countries whose citizens require visas to enter the EU. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been removed from this list.

EU policy towards the Western Balkans, as set out in the Thessaloniki agenda, lists visa liberalisation as a step towards eventual EU membership. Visa liberalisation negotiations were launched in 2008, with progress benchmarks that include introducing biometric passports, which citizens must possess in order to qualify for the visa waiver.

The Commission had proposed that short-stay (less than three months) visa requirements be waived for FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro, but Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina did not qualify. The European Parliament agreed with this proposal, and afterwards the Council of the European Union of November 30th gave the final green light to visa liberalisation in FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro.

MEPs propose to add Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the list of visa-free countries and to start visa dialogue with Kosovo. MEP's proposal about Albania and Bosnia has a footnote stating that the visa exemption would take effect only after an assessment by the Commission that the country in question meets all the benchmarks and in accordance with the procedures as provided by the Treaty.

In the first minutes of December 19 th, fifty citizens of the Republic of Serbia will be the first to travel to the European Union without visas in their passports in a flight from Belgrade to Brussels. This group of Serbian citizens will also visit Rome, Berlin and Paris. This trip will symbolically mark the abolition of visas for Serbian citizens to travel to the EU. It has been organized by the Serbian authorities in cooperation with the European Movement in Serbia. The project is supported by the European Commission's Directorate General for Enlargement under the "People 2 People" Programme.