New rules allowing Georgian citizens to travel to the Schengen Area without a visa will come into full effect today. As Max Fras writes, EU visa liberalisation has been presented by the Georgian government as a major success story, but drawing on the experience of Albania, he presents four lessons that the country’s politicians should keep in mind now the new system is in place

Fras, Max

LSE Research Online

28/03/2017Four takeaways from Albania’s EU visa liberalisation journey forGeorgiablogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/03/28/georgia-eu-visa-liberalisation-albania/New rules allowing Georgian citizens to travel to the Schengen Area without a visa will come into fulleffect today. As Max Fras writes, EU visa liberalisation has been presented by the Georgiangovernment as a major success story, but drawing on the experience of Albania, he presents fourlessons that the country’s politicians should keep in mind now the new system is in place.A sign at Tbilisi Airport celebrating the Association Agreement signed between the EU andGeorgia, Credit: Max FrasGeorgian governments frequently refer to the experience of Central and Eastern European EU member states as asource of guidance in the EU integration process. But perhaps more useful, if less welcome, comparisons could bedrawn with the experience of a country a little closer to home, in the Western Balkans.As Georgia celebrates the successful conclusion of its journey towards visa free travel to the EU, there areimportant, if unexpected, parallels with the uneasy journey Albania embarked upon a few years earlier. This shouldbe of concern to Georgian policymakers. But judging by the last two years, it seems that the Georgian governmentis at risk of repeating the Albanian experience’s worst moments, which could easily be avoided. There are fourlessons in particular that it would be worth learning.1. Do not praise the (same) day a hundred timesAchieving Schengen visa-free access was a long process for Albania. It dominated the 2009 election campaign,when the newly re-elected PM Sali Berisha vowed to conclude an EU visa deal within a year in office with littlefactual evidence to support this pledge. Despite the optimism of the Albanian government, the EU did not includeAlbania in the first round of Western Balkan visa liberalisation  in July 2009, officially citing challenges in biometricpassport reform implementation. Albania was only finally granted visa-free Schengen access over a year later in1/4December 2010.Georgian government tweets on the visa liberalisation dealThe Georgian government was likewise premature in its self-congratulation. It started issuing frequent positivestatements about the purportedly ‘imminent’ visa liberalisation as early as autumn 2015. In December 2015, thenPrime Minister Gharibashvili praised the fact that the EU had given its ‘consent’ for visa liberalisation, even thoughthe process was far from complete. His government threw a massive party in central Tbilisi and lit up majorlandmarks in EU blue dotted with yellow stars in celebration of the liberalisation – not unlike the AlbanianGovernment’s decision to decorate Tirana with Schengen Member State flags and ‘pa viza’ slogans in December2010.In March 2016, Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikheil Janelidze, claimed that Tbilisi ‘expected’ the visaliberalisation process to be concluded by June 2016. The celebrations continued throughout 2016 despite the factthe milestones were just steps of a multi-stage process involving numerous EU institutions and bodies. Even thoughthe process has only now been concluded (on 28 March 2017) the news items and congratulatory announcementson social media now number in the hundreds, risking a certain ‘excitement fatigue’ among Georgians and the EUalike.2. It’s only over when it’s over – and it is never really overAlbania celebrated its final (actual) visa liberalisation in 2010, but the jubilant mood was soon soured by the re-emergence of accusations of abuse of freedom of movement by Albanian citizens. Inaction on the part of theAlbanian government (e.g. a lack of awareness-raising on the nature of visa-free movement), eventually resulted inthe EU revising its visa-free suspension measures.As Georgia’s travel and diaspora links with Schengen countries remain weaker than those of Albania (which hassizeable diasporas in Italy, Greece and other Schengen states), and awareness levels among Georgians seem tobe even lower than in Albania, a lot of hard work lies ahead for the Georgian government to ensure that the visaliberalisation measures remain firmly in place after the initial liberalisation. Visa liberalisation is also widely seen inGeorgia as part of the EU-Russia tug of war and it is likely to remain a contentious issue in both domestic andforeign policy.3. The Schengen Party does not win electionsOne might expect the conclusion of a visa-free deal to deliver electoral rewards to the ruling party. But Albania’s2/4experience suggests it doesn’t always work out this way. Albania’s Democratic Party made visa liberalisation one ofthe central elements of its 2013 electoral campaign, and yet suffered a spectacular defeat at the hands of theopposition Socialist Party.In Georgia, the visa liberalisation process has already became a key part of the domestic political struggle, with theruling Georgian Dream government accusing the opposition of sabotaging the process and the PM making falsestatements to the effect that Georgia was eligible to launch the liberalisation process together with Moldova.Although the next parliamentary elections in Georgia are over three years away, the government should not assumethat its visa liberalisation success will be either remembered or recognised when Georgians next turn up to the ballotbox.4. Regional context mattersGeorgia brands itself as a regional leader in reform and EU integration, sometimes at the expense of regional co-operation. But the fact is, events in other parts of the Eastern Partnership region remain important for Georgia.Although more adventurous ideas such as making Georgia the ‘Israel of the Caucasus’ or a ‘Caucasian Singapore’seem to have left Georgian politics altogether with former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the will to move EUrelations ahead with little regard for the progress of other Eastern Partnership countries remains strong.Credit: Max FrasJust as Albania had visa liberalisation tied to Bosnia and Herzegovina (both countries were kept in the waiting roomafter Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia were granted Schengen visa-free access), Georgia suddenly discoveredits fate is linked to the performance of the Poroshenko administration in Ukraine. Angela Merkel’s remarks in 2016,suggesting that Georgia’s visa liberalisation could be tied to progress made by Ukraine, was vehemently protestedby the Georgian government and yet remained an acute reminder of the importance of the regional context of EUrelations.ConclusionsThe Albanian Schengen visa-free access path shows that Georgia and other Eastern Partnership countries have alot to learn from their Western Balkan neighbours. The EU integration experience of the 2004 A8 club (CzechRepublic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) as well as Romania, Bulgaria andCroatia, differs sharply from that of Georgia in terms of integration and the international environment. This is clearlyillustrated by the visa liberalisation process.3/4What is more, the Georgian government (as well as other Eastern Partnership governments set on the path of EUintegration) should be wary of raising hopes with regard to EU relations. Georgia has recently experienced the riseof populist parties, and creating unrealistic expectations towards the benefits of EU integration can backfire badly –both through bolstering domestic populism as well as a negative reaction from the EU.Please read our comments policy before commenting .Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, norof the London School of Economics._________________________________About the authorMax Fras – LSEMax Fras is a Visiting Fellow at LSEE – Research on South Eastern Europe.4/4

Four takeaways from Albania’s EU visa liberalisation journey for Georgia

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