Kosovo to change progress on meeting EU criteria

They say that in this context Kosovo is the last, even though there may be benefits from these changes.

Since Albania and Northern Macedonia's refusal to start EU membership negotiations, France has raised discussion on changing the conditions for the European future of the Western Balkans.

Epic Institute Director Demush Shasha told Kosovo Radio that with this, the integration process should be parallel to the real state state that claims to be part of the EU.

“Anyway, whatever we can judge from France's introduced views, is that it wants to present the enlargement process in that direction that through seven different stages that the countries of the Western Balkans must pass, they will behave much more like EU countries. So, they no longer want the situation to happen as they have with Bulgaria and Romania, where only after EU membership, problems have emerged”, he said.

Shasha says Kosovo is far away in this process, but it is not impossible, because it will be very beneficial:

According to France's proposal, the criteria are being toughed, because it is required to function the same as the EU countries, but on the other hand, how the enlargement process has worked so far, under France's proposal the BP countries will open up much more funding for reform than it is today. So on one side, Kosovo will be required deeper and faster reforms, but on the other hand, much larger funds will be made available than those that have been to date”, he added.

Whether or not France's initiative is going to pass, analysts say Kosovo should change the pace of meeting the criteria, as it has so far stalled in this direction.