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On 9 November, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis welcomed the European Commission’s recommendation to give Montenegro a European Union candidate country status and the Commission’s repeated recommendation to the Council of the EU on starting accession negotiations with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia that had enjoyed the status of an EU candidate country since 2005.

On 9 November, the European Commission adopted the annual EU’s enlargement package, which includes the EU’s enlargement strategy document and regular progress reports for Croatia, Turkey and Western Balkan countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia.

This year’s enlargement package also contains the Commission’s opinion on the readiness of two applicants - Albania and Montenegro - to start negotiations on membership.

For the first time this year’s package includes also a summary of the progress made by Iceland.  Iceland opened EU accession negotiations on 27 July this year.

“Despite economic and political challenges that the EU currently faces, the perspective of the EU membership remains an essential incentive for further reforms,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis said about the importance of continuity of the EU’s enlargement policy.

The Minister encouraged countries with EU ambitions to continue implementing important political and economic reforms, especially in the areas of the fight against corruption, protection of human rights and improvement of business environment.

Minister A.Ažubalis also stressed that the EU visa waiver policy for the Western Balkan countries not only brought their citizens closer to the EU, but also set a great example showing that timely reforms could yield tangible results.

On 8 November, the Council of the EU decided to lift visa requirements for citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina this December. The exemption from the visa requirement only applies to holders of biometric passports. The citizens of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are able to travel without visa to the EU as of 19 December 2009.

Every year, the European Commission adopts the enlargement package explaining its policy on the EU enlargement.

For more information about the Commission’s documents, please visit here.