Brussels refuses to sign demarcation as condition for visas

Demarkation with Montenegro, as well as fighting corruption, are two non-negotiable conditions for Brussels, so that Kosovo can only then have the opportunity to end isolation and move visa-free in the area ofchennengen.

This position about visas, Europeans re-edited last night to European Integration Minister Litera Hoxha.

Hic away from Wednesday, the diplomat, Christian Danielsson, during his stay in Pristina, has said the EU's stance on demarcation is firm. Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli last week had asked senior officials in Brussels not to contact the demarcation.

The hopes of Kosovars enjoying visa liberalisation, as promised each year, are always smaller and smaller. Without ratification of the border demarcation with Montenegro and fighting organised crime and corruption, Brussels will not change its so-called stance. They insist that these two issues are essential to reaching visas, writes Express.

Even at Thursday's meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Committee, the European Union-Kosovo, which Genoeva Calavera, Director for the Western Balkans, attended by European Integration Minister Hoxha, the latter reminded him that Kosovo must resolve Demarkation and fight organised crime and corruption.

On the official page of the EU, they detail what was discussed at this meeting.

They say at this meeting their officials encouraged Kosovo to intensify the work of ratifying the border agreement with Montenegro and to support progress on the right path towards fighting organised crime and corruption.

Prime Minister Haradinaj hosted European Commission Enlargement Director General Christian Danielsson on Wednesday. At the joint conference of Haradinaj and Dannielson, nothing new was told from what has been repeatedly been declared by foreign visa officials. Diplomat Christian Dannielson said the European Union's stance on demarcation of the border between Kosovo and Montenegro is flat.

I agree that there is one of the criteria for visa liberalisation guides. When we come, here that mentions the issue of the demarcation agreement, the criteria are publicly recognised, and we advise that how to address these criteria, this goes to the Government of Kosovo, and our commitment is clear, when these are done. The EC is ready to recommend visa liberalisation once those issues are carried out”, he has said.

Meanwhile, Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Behgjet Pacolli is optimistic that he has found consensus in Brussels on this.

During my visit to Brussels, I did not want to make the interconnection of these two issues, demarcation and visa liberalisation. The demarcation is a condition imposed on Kosovo unjustly, and I have told all of those with whom I have talked, and finally I had constructive conversations and with Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Mrs. Moghrini and I have told them this and I believe I've come across understanding and it's almost decided to form two groups, one from Kosovo and one from the European Commission to discuss the way we can get free from the demarcation condition and the integration process not to be hostage to this point, but to move forward and to the process of integration of visa liberalisation<1> has said in an interview with DW.

But, Pacolli says that if the commission appointed by Haradinaj does not give evidence that land has been lost with the Agreement with Montenegro, Kosovo will return to the first version.

A commission has now been formed and this commission must bring valid evidence used internationally that the preliminary agreement has been wrong. If there is no evidence, we will return to the first agreement. Montenegro has no reason to rush and ask for something that we cannot do today, as is the ratification now of that” agreement, Pacolli has expressed.

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, on his first day of work as executive leader, has formed a Commission aimed at bringing in new facts that, according to him, evidence that by the current version, the country loses over 8 thousand hectares of land.