17 European states have announced they will make charge-free visas available to all valid Serbian applicants, just days before an election seen as a referendum on Serbia's future ties with the EU.
'We have decided to make full use of the flexibility referred to by the European Commission to provide free visas to all individual applicants for whom that is a possibility,' said a joint statement by the 17 states issued by the French Foreign Ministry.
The offer was made by France, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and non-EU member Norway.
Serbia is among a number of countries for which Ireland does not charge for visas.
Today's move comes before a crucial 11 May election in Serbia seen as a watershed for its future ties with the EU.
Serbs have needed a visa to enter EU member states since the wars that followed Yugoslavia's break-up in the 1990s, and most young Serbian voters have never been abroad.
With public dismay high over Kosovo's Western-backed secession from Serbia on 17 February, polls forecast a tight parliamentary vote.
Nationalist prime minister Vojislav Kostunica is set to tip the result in favour of the anti-EU camp if the two main parties are tied.
The EU's 27 member states overcame internal differences last week to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement on political and economic ties with Belgrade, although its implementation remains frozen until Serbia fully cooperates with the UN war crimes tribunal.
The EU sees Serbian membership as crucial to long-term stability in the Balkans.
EU Commissioner Jacques Barrot is to travel to Belgrade on Wednesday and Thursday to present a road map for talks that should lead ultimately to visa-free travel in the EU for all of Serbia's 7.5m citizens.
It will include specific conditions which Serbia needs to fulfil, including meeting EU standards on security of borders, police cooperation, fight against organised crime and adding biometric identifiers in passports.
Freedom to travel has long been the main benefit most Serbians associate with closer EU ties, but it is unclear how much of an impact the visa moves will have.
Only relatively well-off Serbians, already the natural constituency of the Democratic Party, can afford to travel abroad from a country where monthly salaries average €350.
Most find the current €35 visa fee the least annoying part of an application procedure that requires hours queuing in front of embassies and the presentation of numerous documents, including bank statements, salary slips, guarantee letters and even deeds to real estate property.
