Government's catastrophic failure: Not even countries that recognise Kosovo are supporting visa liberalisation

The lack of the issue of visa liberalisation for Kosovo as the topic on the agenda of the European Union Council of Ministers has finally lifted expectations in Kosovo for a positive decision on visa liberalisation this year.

Countries that have mostly expressed reluctance to liberalise visas for Kosovo are exactly allied countries, which so far, except they have recognised Kosovo among the first, have helped it in the process of European integrations.

Awareers of European integrations say the visa liberalisation process has been a process of technical criteria, involving internal affairs and order and law in the country.

Jehona Lushaku é Sadriou, political and informed European integrations, says that the very friendly states of Kosovo have made their assessments about meeting the criteria and maintaining or continuing the implementation of those criteria.

I think these countries made more detailed assessments. Then there is this political dimension of the momentum in which these states are now found. They are ahead of the elections (in the EU) and then, they have a political calculator and a political cost reflected at the polls in next spring for the European Union's” elections, Lucaku-Sadriu stressed.

The European Union countries' political calculations regarding the elections ahead in the coming year are not rarely mentioned to be linked to the fear of migration and the migration policies these countries have.

But, Taulant Kryeziu from the Kosovo Institute for European Policy (EPIK) considers that the fear of European Union countries from a eventual migration from Kosovo remains unreasonable.

I think that as far as numbers are concerned, within migration, they are not in 2015, when there were over 60 thousand of our citizens who have access to EU member states. Today it's about 6 grand, according to the latest figures. I think that the problem and hesitation in the main countries of the European Union and the friendly countries of Kosovo, such as France, the Netherlands and Germany, is two-way. First of all, we have not witnessed that we have a system of reliable justice and people of integrity who are willing to judge cases involving corruption and organised crime”, Kryeziu said.

He has added that since 2016 to this day, there have been no cases of formal - form convictions for cases of corruption and organised crime.

According to him, the enlargement strategy mentions that justice in Kosovo is influenced by politics, and this has damaged it and continues to undermine the country's European perspective. Also, as Kryeziu points out, even in the resolution, which the European Parliament has passed, it is suggested that Kosovo suffers from elements of the seized state and spreading corruption at all levels of governance. All of this, according to him, has increased the gap of suspicion in countries, which potentially favour European integrations for Kosovo.

Otherwise, Lushaku-Sadriu expressed the opinion that Kosovo authorities have had to provide guarantees that the criteria related to visa liberalisation will continue to be implemented. As she says, such guarantees have been missed.

These, likely, are non-garanced by our country in terms of implementing these criteria and continuing them even after making the decision by the EU. This, in fact, questions all the lobbies done by our country to guarantee separate countries. Then, possibly, we have a lack of statistics, data, that would prove our oath to continue implementing these” criteria, said Lusaku-Sadriu.

Kryezius has similar thoughts. According to him, within the framework of the European Commission report, it has been said that Kosovo has met the criteria for visa liberalisation, but has been required to constantly meet those criteria.

“The problem lies with the big countries, which have recognised and supported Kosovo. Meanwhile, countries that have not recognised us are not able to block this process, because those five countries, fortunately for us, do not make up the 35 percent stumbling block of the European Union's population, Kryeziu stressed.

However, European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn has mentioned 2020, as the most optimistic time when Kosovo will again be able to expect a positive evental decision on visa liberalisation.