Illegal migrations, serious obstacle to visa liberalisation

These concerns support them in very rigid positions, reportedly France's and several other countries in relation to the Western Balkan countries, which were reflected in the lack of consensus for launching membership negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said the issue of large number of asylum seekers from Western Balkan countries is affecting that these states are staying outside the European Union.

Kosovo, currently not close to gaining EU candidate status, but its expectations are for the EU to make a positive decision regarding visa liberalisation. In addition to problems with aspects of the rule of law, one of the obstacles to visa removal was the number of asylum seekers.

But based on official statistics, it notes a decline in the number of asylum seekers from Kosovo towards EU states.

Until 2015, the number of asylum seekers from Kosovo to EU countries was very disturbing, this number has dropped in the last two years, according to Eurostat statistics.

According to these statistics, during 2018, about 5 thousand Kosovo citizens have sought asylum in EU countries. Until two years ago, that number was twice as large.

European Union Law lawmaker Artan Murati told Radio Free Europe that there is a declining trend, if compared to other countries, including Albania, but still, this data for Kosovo citizens who seek asylum in the respective states is disturbing.

The result is that, at the moment, borders were opened and opportunities were created, for these citizens to move freely to the EU, it would become an even bigger problem. But visa liberalisation would enable even better mechanisms from EU states to control who gets in and out of their countries and I don't believe it would create any problems greater than there is now”, Murati said.

And the Kryeziu Progress by the Committee for Jury and Political Studies told Radio Free Europe that if the EU decision -- France's rejection of the liberalisation process respectively -- is the decision on the basis of political will, then according to him, what is the meaning of the technical criteria that Kosovo has had to meet.

According to Kryeziu, such an EU approach to Kosovo severely damages its credibility and risks weakening its role as driving reforms Kosovo needs.

The number of asylum seekers is a pretext used by France for reasoning its position. Migration will have both no visa liberalisation, as with visa liberalisation. Migration is a popular form of human movement from the early days of our society, as humans. I consider, this is only a pretext that is being used by France to legitimise its position, which is strictly political towards the Western Balkans, and in this case also for Kosovo”, Kryeziu said.

The EU Council of Ministers last year did not put the visa liberalisation issue for Kosovo citizens at all. This year, according to incumbent Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, the expectations are for this issue not to be sidelined by the EU.

In fact, Haradinaj had congratulated Kosovo citizens on, as he had said, visa liberalisation, while the EU had assured that “Kosovo will not export asylum seekers, criminals or uncertainties to Europe, but honest citizens who want to be equal with other European citizens”.

From the data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, through 2013 to 2017 from Kosovo, more than 170 thousand citizens have emigrated.

The largest number of citizens who left the country during this period was 2015, when more than 75 thousand citizens emigrated from Kosovo, most of them in irregular form.