Pacolli: Serbia should not necessarily recognise Kosovo independence

Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli stressed this in an interview given “AgenziaNova” during his visit to Rome, the MPJ media office reports.

After meeting in the Italian Foreign Ministry with Minister Angelino Alfano, who has described as excellent and useful “for Pristina's European integration path”, Pacolli has participated in Società Dante Alighier for his background presentation “Nothing is impossible”.

At the announcement of the MPJ office, the country is also left with glory for business business's private works, Pacolli.

Kosovo's “Foreign Minister is, in fact, the founder of the international Mabetex construction company, which has restored the Kremlin and built many buildings of Kazakhstan's capital Astana, and is a supporter of dialogue in the Balkans to create a regional strategy with the goal of integrating into the EU”.

The “for me is a wonderful thing that Kosovo is independent: I am satisfied with the way things have gone, even though some countries still do not recognise us as state”, Pacolli was quoted as saying in the interview for “AgenziaNova”.

According to Foreign Minister “there is a difference between Kosovo's independence and the aspirations of other peoples to be independent”, because in the case of South Tyrol in the years seventy, or now of Catalonian claims “have been based on a life of order and high living standards”, so their demands are “ <X5>, while “Kosovo to exist should be independent, because there has occurred an extermination and a dispute <57>

Kosovo has done a lot in these years”, Pacolli says. “Since the declaration of independence in 2008, ten years have passed: we have built a state, institutions and we have a modern legislation and functional infrastructure”, his office reports.

In his opinion, the fact that five European Union states have not yet recognised Kosovo's independence is negative, “but we know the reasons for” for which they have not chosen to take this step. In addition to Spain's particular case, for which concerns are valid about the legitimacy of the scezitist internal forces in Basque and Catalonia, according to Pacolt the other four EU countries have chosen this line for “particular religious reason”, as it is about nations with an Orthodox Christian majority: Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania.

For Spain, the situation is slightly different”, he says, though it should be said that the Catalon also represents a different “cystia” compared to the Kosovo case.

“But we are not angry”, the minister continues, saying he is convinced that sooner or later there will be an approach of all EU countries on independence and, as the MPJ, Pristina, refers to.

“Of course”, Pacolli adds, the lack of recognition by these five EU countries has hampered the path of Kosovo's European integration, but not so much as could not be recognised by 115 countries in the world and become a member of 62 different regional and international organisations.

In addition, with some major democracies we have excellent relations: The United States, Japan, Canada, European countries such as Italy, Germany and France”.

Of course, it would be fair to accept this reality, since Kosovo already exists and nothing can be done to change it”, it concludes.

Moving to relations with Serbia, Pacolli says dialogue will have a boost in the coming months, despite recent events in northern Mitrovica with the murder of Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic.

Serbia should not necessarily recognise Kosovo's independence, but should not stop Pristina's journey to Europe”, Pacolli says, because “we accept Serbia as an existing fact very important for peace and stability in the Balkans and we know that Belgrade can contribute a lot to this direction “and therefore” should accept the fact that Kosovo is an independent state “

If we start with this fact, even dialogue for normalisation of relations should go better”, Pacolli said. According to him, “2018 will be a crucial year” for dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, so that the “key issues are gradually discussed for the concrete benefit of citizens “.

Moving to the topic for parliamentary initiative to abolish the Special Court for the Crimes of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), Pacolli makes it clear that in any case relations with international allies will not be harmed.

“I think that Kosovo will not harm relations with the international community, because the majority of Kosovo citizens do not want it, it wants, for the Special Court to establish justice”, stresses Pacolli, but also points out that the birth of this organisation, with headquarters at The Hague, created in 2015 by a Kosovo law, “was probably not right” because “should have dealt with other crimes of” and not only events, which occurred in the last months of the conflict in the Balkans.

“Juridicion of Special Court”, he explains, should go even further back in time, so that it was not limited only to KLA members, but also to investigate others who committed crimes during the Balkan conflict”. But, repeat, even if a revision of the founding law was desirable, “we can't do anything and now we have to accept it as it is: Kosovo must respect all obligations made at the international level”.

According to Pacolli, furthermore, the fact that a possible absence of the European Union in the Balkan region can be met by Russia is a true “problem”.

I think Europe should not stop being present in the Balkans, but it should increase this presence, because this territory is NATO and Europe. So it's not good to go to the house of others and dictate the rules “.

Recently, Pacolli cites the issue of EU visa liberalisation for Kosovo citizens. According to Pristina Foreign Minister, the lack of visa liberalisation hinders many Kosovo youth from freedom of movement and travel.

And the lack of visa liberalisation has been linked by the EU to ratifying the border agreement with Montenegro, a step Kosovo's parliament cannot meet because of the opposition's stance.

However, Pacolli ends up with a positive note, talking about a gradual “process” based on regional dialogue. In this direction, Kosovo has already had two intergovernmental meetings with Albania this year, a meeting with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and will probably have another one by the end of the year with Montenegro.