Europeanisation Through Mobility: Visa Liberalisation and Citizenship Regimes in the Western Balkans

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of the visa liberalisation dialogues which took place between the European Commission and national governments of the Western Balkans for the citizenship regimes of the countries concerned. The visa liberalisation process is approached as a tool of Europeanisation of the area of justice, freedom and security and as an exercise of EU conditionality. The analysis reflects on the negotiations for visa liberalisation as well as the mechanisms established for post-visa liberalisation monitoring. Looking both at the formal benchmarking process and through interviews with stakeholders at the national level, the paper traces how the visa liberalisation process affected the status and rights dimension of citizenship in the region.

Keywords: visa liberalisation, citizenship, Western Balkans, asylum seekers