Why Kosovars are nervous with the EU

According to them, this discurs was inspired by developments in political and social reality.

Politologist Ramush Tahiri tells Radio Free Europe, that government institutions, but also the opinion in Kosovo, are disappointed with the failure to meet expectations they have had in relation to the EU, which are based on promises the EU has given for Kosovo.

The anti-European discursion that is being established in Kosovo has a real basis because Kosovo is stuck in European integrations, as the last country in the Balkans. While, too, great disappointment is with non-liberalisation of visas for Kosovo citizens, because Kosovo has remained ten years behind Serbia, despite Kosovo having international and European missions on its territory. They have had to raise the quality of governance and decision-making, as well as the rule of law”, Tahiri points out.

He adds that Kosovo's government with Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has taken a course of full and unconditional partnership with the European Union and is now behaving as a party demanding responsibility from the European Union and judges its actions, practices that have so far not occurred.

Milazim Krasniqi, chief of the Journalism Department at the University of Pristina, speaking of Radio Free Europe, estimates that increasing discontent is the product of the frustration of Kosovo citizens with the stance, as he calls it, ignoring the European Union, separately in the case of visa non-liberalisation for Kosovo citizens.

The discontent has been added, according to him, furthermore, because EU officials have acknowledged that Kosovo has met the criteria for visa liberalisation, while the expectations of Kosovo citizens have been very great that the process will end positively.

Many people have made family plans and career plans, as well as businesses, with this kind of time. This, in turn, has caused this kind of increase in discontent and this rise in negative discours towards the European Union. Of course, a non-minor influence also has here the conviction that Brussels has no balanced policy on the negotiation process between Serbia and Kosovo, because it has favoured Serbia more. These are not just political positions, but critical analyses”, Krasniqi says.

As he emphasises, since Kosovo has not received visa liberalisation, Serbia has been allowed to open two chapters in the negotiations process with the European Union, the chapter for monetary policies and the chapter for statistics.

Officials of political developments stress that Kosovo, since the establishment of its citizenship, has expressed commitment to European and Euro-Atlantic integrations.

In this direction, according to politicologist Tahiri, toughening the vocabulary of the European Union and creating a Euro-scepticism can be harmful, because Kosovo has no alternative other than EU integration. But, as he says, it would be good for the EU to consider the policies of enlargement and integration of the Western Balkans.

The “should not enter the countries separately, but these remaining countries enter the group, because any neglect in this Kosovo case would also cause internal tensions. It would lose the European perspective, but it would also cause a dishonest race between the countries of the Western Balkans, in this case of Kosovo and Serbia, which, instead of helping each other, would deter Tahiri, says.

Nevertheless, Professor Krasniqi estimates that the Euro-sceptic atmosphere has more than in Kosovo, in the countries of the European Union itself, but also in Serbia. As he says, conviction has been developed that if pressure is put on in Brussels, more favors are received. According to him, it is thus understood, at least in Serbia's case, while the frustration of Kosovo's citizens in the case of visa non-liberalisation has led them to switch to Euro-sceptics from the Euro-entusitors.

How this will affect the relationship remains to be seen. But, I am convinced that if the European Union does not change the course towards Kosovo separately on the issue of visa liberalisation and on a more balanced policy on the issue of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, however, the rise of Euro-scepticism in Kosovo will occur, but also the growth of Albanian nationalism. These, then they would go together and then we would be in a situation that would be more difficult to manage these” reports, Krasniqi praised.

Politicalologist Tahiri points out, however, that Kosovo institutions cannot escape responsibility for creating scepticism created against the EU, because they too have promised Kosovo citizens visa liberalisation, which, based on EU officials' statements, will not be realised, at least until 2020.