HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL : EU MAY REINTRODUCE TEMPORARY VISA REQUIREMENT FOR BALKAN STATES.

The absence of a visa requirement between the EU and Serbia (plus four other Balkan states) will no longer be unconditional. It may be provisionally suspended in cases of an abusive increase in asylum applications from these countries, about which six EU countries (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg) have been complaining for months. The member states, the European Parliament and the Commission worked out an agreement in their three-way talks, on 5 December 2012, on the introduction of a "safeguard clause" in the 2001 visa regulation that establishes the list of countries exempted from the visa requirement for short stays (under 90 days).

This safeguard clause, proposed by the...