Kosovo ready to vote on key border deal with Montenegro

By Fatos Bytyci

PRISTINA, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Kosovo's parliament will vote soon on a border agreement with Montenegro that's needed for Kosovars to get visa-free travel privileges from the European Union, three years after the terms of the deal were initially agreed, President Hashim Thaci said on Friday.

Attempts to hold the vote in the past have triggered violence, with MPs releasing tear gas in parliament and angry protesters clashing with the police in the street.

"Now there is a possibility to proceed and vote on the deal and opening the way to the visa liberalization for the citizens of Kosovo," Thaci said.

On Friday, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic signed a joint statement agreeing to rectify any mistakes in the border deal.

Kosovo's opposition parties opposed the deal in 2015 and 2016 because they claimed it contained errors that meant handing over some 8,000 hectares (19,700 acres) of the country's territory to Montenegro.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who was the main opponent of the actual border deal, hailed the new agreement.

Kosovo is the only country in the Balkans whose citizens need visas to travel to EU member states. Its regional neighbors Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia obtained visa-free access to Europe's border-free Schengen zone in 2010.

Kosovo, a country of 1.8 million people, will celebrate its 10th year of independence on Saturday. It declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after NATO air strikes drove out Serbian security forces that were accused of killing and expelling ethnic Albanian civilians during a counter-insurgency war.

On Thursday, Barbados became the 116th country to recognize Kosovo's independence. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, editing by Larry King)

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