Serb President Boris Tadic (l) with the EU’s Jacques Barrot (c) and Olli Rehn (r) in Brussels yesterday.

BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union yesterday abolished visa requirements for citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro and Serbia but kept them for people from three other nations in the Western Balkans.

A statement by the EU’s ministers of justice and home affairs said the visa decision takes effect on December 19.

It will apply to the so-called Schengen Area of unfettered travel, which covers 25 EU member states, as well as three non-EU members – Iceland, Norway and Switzerland – but does not include Britain and Ireland.

The move toward visa liberalization removes one of the major irritants in relations between the 27-nation bloc and the nations of the Western Balkans. Critics said the strict visa requirements hurt the EU’s own plans to integrate the region into the bloc.

The lifting of the visa requirements will abolish long lines in front of Western embassies, which many locals considered humiliating.

In Serbia, the visa abolition represents a major boost for the pro-EU government, which has been under increasing pressure from nationalists over its close cooperation with the West.

“We promised our citizens that we will get the visas abolished, and we have fulfilled it,” Serbian President Boris Tadic said at a joint press conference in Brussels with EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot.

The EU said citizens of Albania and Bosnia still need visas to travel to the 27-nation bloc, but this will be re-evaluated in 2010. Europe’s newest nation, Kosovo, has not yet been included in the visa liberalization program, EU officials said.

“By simplifying the mobility of the citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, the EU will further foster the contacts between the Union and these countries and open a new era in our cooperation,” Barrot said.

Citizens of the three nations enjoyed visa-free travel to western Europe for 40 years as part of the six-member Yugoslav federation.

Visa requirements were first introduced as the federation was breaking up in 1991.

Slovenia, a former Yugoslav republic that is now an EU member, was the first to be removed from the list and Croatia followed.

In FYROM, the government welcomed the move. “It is an important decision especially for the young generations who will bear on their shoulders the development of Macedonia, a future EU member state,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“I’m glad this harassment is over,” said Ljubica Jovanovic, a Belgrade university student. “Somehow, this feels like the final fall of the Berlin Wall.”