European Union Interior Ministers have agreed to extend visa-free travel to citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania.
The Council of EU Interior Ministers met in Brussels on Monday approved the passage of a measure by the bloc's Parliament a month ago. The EU Parliament voted in favor of the two countries on October 7.
Exemption for citizens from these Balkan countries means they do not require visas from next year to travel in the 25-nation Schengen open borders zone, which encompasses all EU states except Britain, Ireland, Romania and Bulgaria, plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
Other former Yugoslavian Republics of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro became eligible for visa-free travel last year.
A meeting of the EU Interior Ministers in November 2009 had indicated that visa-free access would also be granted to "citizens of the other Eastern Balkan countries" provided they "meet all the conditions."
France and the Netherlands had expressed concern that the two countries had not done enough in terms of tightening border controls to merit the concession, but the European Commission assured to monitor migration flows from all Western Balkan countries.
The Schengen Area operates very much like a single entity for international travelers with no internal border controls.
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