The European Parliament voted Tuesday to allow visa-free visits to the EU for citizens of Kosovo, starting by the end of next year. Kosovo, once a Serbian province in the former Yugoslavia, is the last territory in the Western Balkans without visa-free travel to the EU’s Schengen travel area. The reform will be welcomed in Pristina as another step towards full recognition and a boost for the European ambition of a territory that won independence after a 1998-1999 war. Serbia does not recognise the independence of its former breakaway province. Nor do five EU member states: Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Romania.