The Commission submitted its first report under the
mechanism for the visa suspension mechanism.
This report follows up on the Commission's duty to
monitor the continuous fulfilment of visa liberalisation
requirements by third countries and to report on those matters to
the European Parliament and the Council, at least once a year in
accordance with Regulation
(EC) No 539/2001.
The assessment of the visa liberalisation benchmarks
applies to countries which have successfully concluded visa
liberalisation dialogues according to relevant action plans and
roadmaps, i.e. the countries of the Western Balkans
(Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia -
Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia) and the Eastern Partnership
(Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine).
The Commission considers that the visa
liberalisation requirements for the concerned countries continue to
be fulfilled:
- the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries
continued to take measures to address the still persisting
irregular migration challenges, in particular Albania.
Cooperation on readmission continues smoothly for all Western
Balkan and Eastern Partnership visa-free countries with overall
high return rates;
- on the other hand, as regards the prevention and
fight against organised crime, despite continuous efforts,
organised crime groups from these countries are still active in
trafficking in illicit fire arms, property crime and trafficking of
various illicit commodities (in particular drugs and tobacco),
money laundering, trafficking in human beings, smuggling of
migrants and cybercrime in EU Member States. Efforts in this
respect need to be strengthened;
- as regards the prevention and fight against
corruption and money laundering, Moldova needs to take
immediate actions to ensure the continuous implementation of the
benchmark and the sustainability of the reforms and Ukraine also
needs to take immediate actions to safeguard anti-corruption
measures introduced with previous reforms and to allow further
progress to be made.
Implementation of the visa liberalisation benchmarks
is a continuous ongoing process. The Commission will report again
to the European Parliament and the Council on the continuous
fulfilment of visa liberalisation requirements by third countries
in 2018.