During a two-day visit to Belgrade that concluded on 24 July, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told Serbian leaders that Prague will ‘actively champion’ Serbia’s accession to both the European Union and the Schengen free-travel zone. Meeting President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister Đuro Macut, Babiš argued that bringing Serbia into Schengen would ‘remove one of the last practical barriers’ for Czech companies expanding in the Western Balkans. More than 100 Czech and Serbian firms attended a bilateral business forum on the sidelines of the visit, with aerospace manufacturer Aero Vodochody in advanced talks to sell eight L-39 Skyfox trainer jets to the Serbian Air Force. Other Czech investors – including PPF, Mattoni 1873, AŽD Prague and hospital-bed specialist LINET – say passport stamps and customs formalities add weeks to project timelines and complicate the movement of engineers and spare parts. Although Serbia opened EU accession negotiations in 2014, progress has been slow. Schengen membership is usually granted only after full EU entry, but Babiš floated the idea of phased integration that would allow limited passport-free travel on key business routes. The Czech proposal echoes the ‘staged accession’ model discussed informally in Brussels and could, if adopted, pilot new mobility corridors for candidate countries. For Czech multinationals the implications are significant: Serbia is already the second-largest recipient of Czech greenfield investment in the Balkans, and consultancy EY estimates that lifting frontier formalities could increase Czech-Serbian trade by 20 % within two years. Conversely, Serbian IT and engineering talent would gain easier access to Czech project sites, complementing the existing Highly Qualified Employee Programme run by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Prague. Diplomats caution that political obstacles remain – including alignment with EU foreign-policy positions – but the visit signals fresh momentum. Mobility managers should watch for pilot schemes that might offer visa-free entry or fast-track work permits for project staff well before formal Schengen enlargement.
