While I do understand that an argument may be made that agreements and mutual understandings between a group of countries may be seen to erect higher walls between those countries and neighbouring countries that are not invited to participate, nevertheless Serb citizens, although required to obtain a Schengen area visa, may visit more countries on a single visa (a visa issued by, say, the Austrian embassy in Belgrade is usually valid for the whole of the Schengen area, unless there are special reasons to limit the validity of the visa), than before the expansion of the Schengen area. Schengen unification also means that a Serb that desires to visit several West European countries does not have to go down the whole block of embassies in order to apply for national visas at each embassy.

Furthermore, a Serb citizen with a residential visa in one of the Schengen countries, for example a work permit in Germany, may visit all the Schengen countries without a visa, as long as he or she brings a valid passport with a Schengen area residence sticker.