Kosovo away from the EU, the EC confirms

This has confirmed the European future of the Balkans as a region with common geostrategic values and common values with the EU.

When it comes to Kosovo in the strategy, it is said that Kosovo has the chance for sustainable progress through implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and the accession of progress on the European road when objective circumstances allow that.

The strategy is also said to be by 2025 The EU may have more than 27 member states that are currently, but the speed of progress on this road depends on each separate state.

Unlike Kosovo, in this strategy the countries which most have progressed on the European road are Serbia and Montenegro of Z, and that they can become members by 2025. The strategy clears the steps these two countries must take in order to join the EU in 2025.

As it comes to Albania and Macedonia, it is estimated that these two countries are achieving significant progress on the European road, and it adds that the Commission is willing to make preparations for opening membership negotiations, but that depends on meeting the conditions.

President Hashim Thaci at a media conference speaks for EU

After publishing this strategy in which no date for EU membership is mentioned for Kosovo, state institutions also reacted.

The first president of the state, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, has said that this unfair approach to Kosovo is due to non-recognition by the five EU member states, until it has called for the ratification of the demarcation with Montenegro in order to abolish visas for Kosovo.

The European Commission published the new strategy for the prospect of integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union. I appreciate this strategy as an EU effort to boost commitment and promote reforms of the countries of the region for EU membership. Therefore, I welcome the drafting of this strategic document, which treats Kosovo as an integral part of the European Union's enlargement plans. However, for well-known political reasons, unfortunately, this document has failed to present a perspective of comprehensive and equal membership for all countries in the region. In particular, this strategy has failed to provide clarity for Kosovo's EU membership”, it wrote on Facebook.

Thaci has written that Kosovo remains to work to remove political barriers to the realisation of the aspirations for integration.

This unfair approach to Kosovo is due to non-recognition by five EU member states, respectively, of the EU's inability to take a unique stance on Kosovo. But Kosovo will not sink into despair”, he had said.

Ramush Haradinaj at a discussion table regarding Kosovo's journey towards EU

After the president, the reaction also came from the first executive, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Through a report from his office, it is said that the Republic of Kosovo has a range of achievements that would have to be recognised and accepted by the European Union as a serious commitment to substantial advancement on the European path of our state.

“With the new Government, Kosovo has quickly implemented and efficiently the key priorities listed in the European Reforms Agency (ERA 2017), and thus has made significant progress in meeting the total SAA criteria. The Kosovo government has expected this progress to be sufficient to clarify the path Kosovo has ahead of itself to gain candidate status, as it was with all other states in the region, and the Enlargement Strategy is equal opportunity and guidance for all, and not only to list the criteria without listing the results achieved”, the report said.

Also, according to the announcement by Prime Minister Haradinaj, it is extremely important that the European Union have clear policy towards Kosovo.

While we are aware of the challenges we have before us, it is extremely important that the European Union have clear policy towards Kosovo, in order to advance its integration process, and not risk our common achievements for lasting peace and stability in the region. These are also the expectations of Kosovo citizens who expect equal treatment from the European Union for all European citizens. Even so, Kosovo's clear commitment to efficient implementation of the SAA should be stressed, seriousness in strengthening the rule of law and relevant institutions, and good neighbourhoods. The year 2018 would have to be the year when Kosovo, with its work and dedication, gains candidate status and visa liberalisation for its citizens”, was written in the announcement.

In contrast to the first two to feel disappointed by the description of Kosovo in this strategy, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Behgjet Pacolli has called the EU Enlargement Strategy good news.

The good news from Brussels is that the EU is exceeding the so-called “from the fateue” -- "ex2" -- tiredness from enlargement and has seriously returned to our region. A reliable prospect of EU enlargement, including the Western Balkans, is an added commitment of Brussels and member states. Re-adfirming a European future of Western Balkan countries by President Jean-Claude Juncker opens new prospects for more stability in our neighbourhood. This is the EU's obligation to maintain the creditable enlargement perspective for the region. With the EU's Strategy for Enlargement, a historic window of opportunity opens for the Republic of Kosovo to be firmly connected and undoubtedly to the common future in the European Union. The Republic of Kosovo has been offered opportunities for sustainable progress through implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, even though we have asked for equal treatment with other countries in the region”, the report said.

Even European Integration Minister Done Hoxha had stressed that it is positive that the European Union has confirmed that Kosovo has its own place in the EU and has its own way separated from Serbia in the process.

I welcome the European Union's Strategy for membership of Western Balkan states, of which Kosovo is part. The EU has opened the door to us to become part of it, but we are the ones to walk through this door. At this stage, we have expected steps more specifically specified about the integration process of our country, but, however, our path to the EU has no alternative. It is extremely positive that the EU has confirmed that Kosovo has its place in the EU and has its way separated from Serbia in this process. The fact that the EU deals with Kosovo's EU accession process, shared by Serbia, for me is a recognition of Kosovo's citizenship, despite non-recognition by some EU member states and resistance that have shown some states that Kosovo is not fully involved in this” strategy, it had written on Facebook.

And not only did the heads of state react, as the opposition reacted to this strategy in Kosovo.

The Vetevendosje movement through a media report has said that in this strategy the EU has placed Kosovo in the fourth and last category, using the banner that continues to address Kosovo's declaration of independence.

“As far as Kosovo is concerned, the Commission's strategy not only does not provide orientation for the membership date, or to be a candidate country for membership, but does not give even a signal that such a thing will be possible without overcoming the obstacles that the Commission wrongly calls “targets”. So in the last two categories that this Commission strategy has created, the two states that have suffered and continue to suffer the greatest injustices in the region from Serbia, through the obstacles of Serbia that are not objective at all, but are Serbia's concrete political and economic plan for countries in the region. At that, always according to this strategy, it seems that the Commission estimates that this destabilising state, Serbia, leads European integration into the Balkans. This EU approach to the Western Balkans is a very clear signal for Kosovo and Albanians in general. We have to identify and structure an internal and regional policy of Kosovo and Albania, to place the weight we have and to realise the goals we want to be, in the Western Balkans and towards the EU”, the report says.

While the chief of the Democratic League of Kosovo parliamentary group (LDK), Avdullah Hoti, has said that this party will seriously take the European Union's enlargement strategy (BE) for the Western Balkans.

“In the new EU Enlargement Strategy, it is positive that Kosovo has been treated as a state among the six Western Balkan countries. But Kosovo is the only country that does not have a clear deadline for integration. It is clear that it remains for us as Kosovo institutions to take the necessary steps to prove that Kosovo is a credital partner for EU integration, that we will not send problems to the EU, but we will contribute to the diversity of EU values”, Hoti wrote on Facebook.

To stop, even representatives of the European Union in Kosovo reacted to these statements.

The chief of the European Union office in Kosovo, Natalia Apostolova, has talked about the EU's Enlargement Strategy for the Western Balkans, where she has said Kosovo should do its best out of this opportunity.

Through a Twitter post, Apostolova stressed that Kosovo must work hard in this direction.

It is up to Kosovo to do its best. To bring together and use the various opportunities described in the Strategy to move forward with reforms, to prepare Kosovo to strengthen democracy, economy and rule of law, so that you are able and willing to play a full and constructive role in our common destiny”, Apostolova wrote. /Arbresh.info