eu-com-schengen-coop

2. LSC meetings held in 2013-2014
Four regular and one ad-hoc LSC meetings were held in the period from April 2013 till April
2014.The Ad-hoc meeting was called upon Greece’s request to clarify and discuss issues pertaining
to the country's decision to start affixing visa stickers and stamps on ordinary, diplomatic and
official passports of Kosovo. The meetings were generally well attended (average of 15-20
participants). The large majority of Member State representatives are located in Pristina with the
exception of two Member States that travel regularly from Skopje to attend LSC meetings in
Pristina (Sweden and the Czech Republic).
LSC meetings are chaired by the Head of the Political, Economic and EU integration section with
the assistance of the LSC contact person at the European Union Office in Kosovo. While topics
such as the use of the harmonized lists of supporting documents continued to be subjects of
discussion, the ongoing visa liberalization dialogue and the civil status registration reform,
including document security, dominated this year’s agenda. On one occasion, COM Decision
(2013) 5914 on the introduction of visa biometry for Kosovo was discussed. In addition, the
meetings served to collect visa statistics and statistics on readmissions.
The LSC meetings served to update Member States on the visa liberalization dialogue. During the
reporting period, two missions took place to assess Kosovo’s level of implementation in the areas
of repatriation and reintegration, document security, migration, asylum, border control and public
order and security. The EUO ensured the close involvement of Member States with the experts
visiting Kosovo, most notably to obtain their views on the functioning of repatriation procedures
and reintegration, document security or the fight against organized crime.
The EUO informed Member States of the adoption by the Council of the amendment of Regulation
539/2001 introducing a potential visa suspension clause for the already visa free Western Balkan
countries in cases of a sudden rise of asylum seekers originating from those countries.
In regards to visa statistics refusal rates are still on the high side (15-20%) and waiting times
remain long.
The summary reports of the LSC meetings were shared with Member States in Pristina, which have
been encouraged to share them with their capitals.
12893/14 PR/lm 114
DG D 1 A
EN