Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has clarified that it has recognised Kosovo passports in a bid to avoid legal hurdles for citizens of Kosovo visiting Spain and other Schengen Zone countries that do not recognise Kosovo’s independence.
All Schengen countries that do not recognise Kosovo have accepted the use of regular Kosovo passports. This, in no way, implies recognition of Kosovo.
From January 1 this year, citizens of Kosovo are eligible to travel visa-free for short-term stays to EU’s Schengen Area countries after waiting for eleven years for such a process to be finished.
Soon after, Spain also announced its decision to permit Kosovars to enter its territory visa-free, in spite of previously claiming it would not allow such a thing to happen. The u-turn move was announced by Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, who called it good news for Kosovars and the state as a whole, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports
Bislimi said that the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the EU confirmed that Spain now recognises the passports of the Republic of Kosovo.
DG Home has announced that Spain now recognises the passports of the Republic of Kosovo. Therefore, we can travel to this country without visas. As of January 1st, visa-free travel has begun, and Spain is a destination added to the Schengen Zone countries where we can travel through liberalisation and where the obstacle was previously the non-recognition of our passport.
Spain has accepted visa-free travel for Kosovars in spite of not recognizing Kosovo’s independence.
The EU and Kosovo visa liberalisation agreement was signed in April 2023. Back then, the EU adopted visa-free travel for holders of Kosovo passports, stressing that they would be eligible to travel visa-free from the beginning of this year.
However, Spain said that it wouldn’t apply visa liberalisation for Kosovo, in spite of the EU agreement, with Spain’s Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, stressing that Kosovars would still not be eligible to travel visa-free after Spain does not recognise Kosovo as an independent country; therefore it does not recognise the passports issued by authorities in this country.
Spain has a traditional policy of non-recognition of Kosovo, and that traditional policy leads to non-recognition of Kosovo passports. It is something that we have been applying consistently already for many years, and it is well known.
However, the recent changes mean that Kosovars will no longer be subject to additional requirements, such as visas, when planning to travel to Spain.