14.12.2010 Official Journal of the European Union L 3291 | (Legislative acts) REGULATIONS REGULATION (EU) No 1091/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 November 2010 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 77(2)(a) thereof, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Commission considers that those two countries have met the benchmarks of their respective roadmaps. (3)  Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina should therefore be transferred to Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 539/2001. ) o Visa liberalisation should apply only to holders of Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, biometric passports issued by each of those two countries. After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, (4  As regards Iceland and Norway, this Regulation constitutes a development of the provisions of the L : : ot 1 Schengen acquis within the meaning of the Agreement Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (1), concluded by the Council of the European Union and the Republic of Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway concerning the latters’ association with the implemen- Whereas: tation, application and development of the Schengen acquis (), which fall within the area referred to in Article 1, point (B), of Council Decision 1999/437/EC of 17 May 1999 on certain arrangements for the appli- (1)  The composition of the lists of third countries in cation of that Agreement (¥). Annexes I and II to Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 (3 should be, and should remain, consistent with the criteria laid down in recital 5 of that Regulation. Third countries for which the situation has changed as regards those criteria should be transferred from one (5) As regards Switzerland, this Regulation constitutes a Annex to the other. In accordance with the political commitment made by the European Union on the liberalisation of the short- term visa requirement for citizens of the Western Balkan countries as part of the Thessaloniki Agenda and taking into consideration the progress made since December 2009 in the visa liberalisation dialogues with Albania (1) Position of the European Parliament of 7 October 2010 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 8 November 2010. () O] L 81, 21.3.2001, p. 1. ( ( ( ( 3 4 5 6 development of the provisions of the Schengen acquis within the meaning of the Agreement concluded between the European Union, the European Community and the Swiss Confederation on the Swiss Confederation’s association with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis (%), which fall within the area referred to in Article 1, points (B) and (C), of Decision 1999/437[EC, read in conjunction with Article 3 of Council Decision 2008/146/EC (9). 176, 10.7.1999, p. 36. 176, 10.7.1999, p. 31. ) O] L ) O] L ) O] L 53, 27.2.2008, p. 52. ) O] L 53, 27.2.2008, p. 1.