"A proposal will be made next Tuesday in Strasbourg to liberalise visas for nationals of the Western Balkans," Jacques Barrot told a news briefing in Brussels. "Under this proposal, the new regime comes into force on 1 January [2010]."
The proposal will have to be formally approved by the EU's 27 justice ministers, although unanimity would not be required.
Barrot said the first countries covered would be Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, while Albania and Bosnia should follow later in 2010, provided they meet certain requirements.
EU officials say Macedonia has already met EU standards for visa liberalisation, which include adequate border monitoring, introduction of biometric passports and steps against crime and corruption.
Montenegro and Serbia were expected to be able to meet all conditions by the year-end. Barrot said the Netherlands remained reluctant to offer concessions to Serbia given Belgrade's failure to clear up war crimes issues dating back to the Yugoslav war of the 1990s.
"Certainly the reluctance of the Netherlands on Serbia remains a important issue, but there will be strong advocates around the table, so I think we will win," Barrot said.
The decision to lift the visa requirement for the citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia will be taken by qualified majority vote.
"We will not punish the Serbian youth due to poor conduct of [Slobodan] Milosevic," he said in reference to the Serbian wartime leader, who died while on trial in the Hague.
Kosovo not in the list
An EU official said Serbian residents in the newly independent Kosovo would still need visas and would have to obtain special passports from Belgrade.
He said the new visa regime would oblige Serbians monitor the border with Kosovo, which Belgrade still considers a part of Serbia and does not recognise as a state.
The Serbian Beta agency reported from Brussels that, on the basis of the Commission's proposal, the Serbian authorities will be able to issue biometric passports to citizens from Kosovo from a single coordination centre in Belgrade.
Commission sources informed Beta that under the Commission's proposal, Serbia would be able to issue biometric passports to citizens from Kosovo, but that they would have to acquire European visas in order to be able to enter the Schengen zone.
But Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuqi said that the EU had legally and politically stated that Kosovo citizens should not be taking Serbian identification documents, B92 reported. Kuqi added that the provincial government expected the EU executive to draw up a visa liberalisation road map for Kosovo as well.
(EurActiv with agencies.)
