NEWS FLASH
Serbia and the United Kingdom are finalising a new Bilateral Air Service Agreement which will come into force upon the expiration of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, planned on December 31, 2020. The Serbian Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Zorana Mihajlović, discussed the framework of the new bilateral with her British counterpart Jesse Norman last week, with talks continuing yesterday with the UK’s Ambassador to Serbia. The deal is expected to be signed in the coming weeks. The UK, which must now negotiate new bilateral air service agreements with countries which were previously covered by the European Union’s Common Aviation Area Agreement, has already inked deals with the EU itself, as well as Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Bilateral air service agreements provide a basic framework under which airlines are granted economic bilateral rights to fly between two countries.
Comments
It is negotiating trade agreements with pretty much everybody.
It is an ideal time for us to pressure them on that front. They have no visa requirements for countries far less economically developed than Serbia who have populations far more likely to immigrate illegally to thew UK.
Nobody was stopping UK to develop stronger economic ties with Serbia at the time they were the part of UK but still it has not been done. Now they are negotiating new trade agreements as EU trade agreements are not anymore valid for UK and they are actually forced to do it.
Let's not forget that even being the part of EU 10 years ago UK did not abolish visas with Serbia although almost all the other EU countries (except Ireland that did not so it because of UK) did it including those that are not the part of EU (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland).
The countries that are less developed than Serbia but do not need entry visas to UK are mostly those belonging to Commonwealth where UK has quite strong economical reasons to keep visa free regime with them (and these countries surely do have much better political relations with UK than Serbia).
Serbia does not have that privilege and at the other side Serbia is often in the eyes of UK recognized as small Russia.
And what kind of relations they have with Russia we all know.
Current version of visa application policy for Serbia is quite time consuming & expensive. It can be improved in order to become more "approachable".
Not true, some Latin American countries who were never part of the Commonwealth are unexplainably on UKs visa free list. Crime ridden El Salvador and Honduras are two of the examples.
There is no way that UK has stronger economic ties with either of those countries, than it has with Serbia.
Also Rep of Ireland, offers free visas to Serbian citizens, the only hassle being they have to send it their passports to be stamped.
I am certain that Serbia will get visa free access to the UK within a year or two, especially considering that Johnson always looked favorably on Serbia unlike its predecessors.
More tragic fact is that Serbian travellers need even transit visa on UK airports if they travel to for example Mexico via London (except for USA or Canada). So, even if you do not oficially enter UK territory you still do need UK visa. It is the toughest level of visa regime UK might have with some country.
From European countries to this group belong Serbia, N.Macedonia, Moldova, Belarus, Kosovo and Albania, but at the same time to this group do not belong some other countries like Zambia, Benin, CAR, Chad, Gabon, Djibouti, Mozambique, Togo, Turkmenistan etc. They do need visa to enter UK but not to transit through UK airport.
Now you can see how far is Serbia from obtaining visa free regime with UK.
Here is the list what Serbian citizen needs to do to obtain Irish visa
http://www.klubputnika.org/servis/vize/evropa/2964-irska
Surely not "just stamping"
UK left EU and will be out of common market by Dec 31st 2020. But EU membership is irrelevant here.
They have never been part of Schengen. Within Schengen, same regulations apply to all countries. Outside of Schengen, any country can make their own, free rules.
Since Schengen status of UK (and Serbia) don't change, there is no connection to abolishment of visas.
Furthermore, they are negotiating which airlines can fly between the two markets and how often plus which air service freedom rights will be granted. But here again, there is no connection to visa regimes of citizens.
Romania and Bulgaria are not Schengen members but despite it they need to have the same visa policy like Germany towards third countries.
UK was together with Ireland here only one exception and it if they did not follow EU rule about visa policy and abolished visa regime with Serbia at the time they were in EU then they would surely not do it now.
Више од седамдесет пута сам летео преко Хитроа и Гетвика.
Додуше са пасошом једне од земаља Британског Комонвелта. Мени је жао што ми је Српски пасош неупотребљив у Лондоном. Али то је Живот. Срби и Енглези живе готово 180% супротних менталитета. Њихов сам у највећој мери схватио. Српски менталитет сам у Духовном делу заштитио. Остаје да продужим летове дуге педесет година...
Rodney & Aviation Enthusiast Assoc. ✈☺✈🌐✈