Kosovo citizens were disappointed on Thursday after unexpected new criteria were mentioned at a meeting of a European Union working group on visa liberalisation for the Balkan state’s passport holders.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the Czech EU presidency said that the EU Council Visa Working Party “broadly welcomed the reopening of the discussion on the subject and generally supported the visa liberalisation process” for Kosovo.

But the statement added: “In order to progress … it will be necessary to clarify a number of related topics and continue discussion.”

It was reported that the next meeting on the issue will be held on November 9.

Local media have reported that some member states have proposed to link the visa liberalisation process with EU’s ETIAS system, which is expected to be launched by November 2023.

ETIAS is a travel authorisation for non-EU nationals who do not need a visa for the Schengen Area and has been developed so that travellers from these countries can continue to travel visa-free, while at the same time improving border management and security across Europe.

Radio Free Europe reported that the proposal was put up by France and supported at least four other states: Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

But in Pristina, the development caused surprise and many people took to social media to express frustration about what they perceived as extra conditions are being added to existing ones that the EU has admitted Kosovo fulfilled years ago.

“Always new excuses to keep up the discrimination against Kosovo in terms of visa liberalisation,” one Twitter user wrote.

“Enough with the blocking of visa-free travel for Kosovo! All the requirements were completed long ago. Venezuela can travel visa-free to EU but not a citizens of a European country?” wondered another.

Along with Turkish citizens, people in Kosovo remain the only ones in Europe who have to spend time and money applying for visas to enter Europe’s Schengen zone.

In 2018, Kosovo met all the requirements it was set to secure a visa-free regime with the European Union, but the European Council – made up of the 27 member states – has yet to unanimously endorse the recommendation to go ahead that was issued by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm.

Speaking about Thursday’s meeting, Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi admitted that some countries in the Council of Europe Working Group for visas have requested that the liberalisation process for Kosovo be linked to some other factors which they describe as technical but which Kosovo considers to be new conditions.

Bislimi said that no EU country objects to visa liberalisation for Kosovo but “they want to link it with some other elements”.

“Even though they pretend they are only technical things, for us they are new conditions,” he told Pristina-based ATV on Thursday.