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The European Union will begin negotiations with Albania and Montenegro about their membership.

European Union abolished the visa regime for citizens of Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Council confirms the strategic importance for the European Union of promoting stability, good governance and economic development in its Eastern neighbourhood. The EU is committed to deepening relations and strengthening cooperation with its Eastern partners.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU ambassadors have agreed to the "political goal" of moving towards a visa-free regime with Moldova in a boost for the pro-EU coalition in Chisinau ahead of November elections.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union is preparing to offer Ukraine an Action Plan on visa-free travel in November. But there is little prospect of a similar deal with Russia for now.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs have put the spotlight on Kosovo being left behind in terms of EU integration after waving through plans for visa-free travel for Albania and Bosnia on top of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - On 14 September the European Commission reported that Albania and Bosnia had done all that the European Union had asked them to do to qualify for visa-free access to the Schengen area. This was the official acknowledgement of more than two years of hard work and difficult reforms.

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - There is a European country which never fails to amaze. That country is Ukraine. The 2004 Orange Revolution came as something of a surprise to the West, which embraced it with open arms believing it would bring increased stability, prosperity and democracy. EU leaders welcomed Viktor Yushchenko, hardly batting an eyelid at the somewhat rushed-through constitutional reforms that followed his victory and which left the country with a complicated structure of governance.

The National Institute for Strategic Studies held a roundtable "Urgent problems of legislative and institutional support for Ukraine's migration policy" on September 22, 2010.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Poland supports Russia's bid for visa-free travel with the EU. But the Polish position is more complicated than he suggests.