EU has visa liberalisation either this year

Awareers of European integrations say this is the result of the lack of results in the fight against organised crime and corruption, while the EU Office in Pristina reiterates its continuing stance on rule and law in Kosovo.

For against supporting some states for visa liberalisation for Kosovo, the EU Council of Ministers, as a decision-making body, has not envisioned the issue. The European Union office in Pristina in a response to Radio Kosovo does not mention the time when this could happen, but speaks of this year's progress report on Kosovo, which supports the European Commission to urgently complete this process. According to the EU Office in Kosovo, it is important that Kosovo continue to demonstrate continued efforts for order and law, migration and security in order to prepare a positive context before the final decision (for visa liberalisation) of EU member states.

But, according to European integration connoisseurs, the main problem in this issue is the impasse of Kosovo institutions in fighting crime and corruption. Demush Shasha, from Institute” EPIK” told Kosovo Radio that scepticism is firmly marked on Kosovo's lack of results in fighting corruption as one of the key EC recommendations on visa liberalisation:

“Therefore, the main reason for the reluctance of several member states to liberalise visas with Kosovo is exclusively with the lack of results in fighting corruption, where three years from May 2016, when Kosovo has been asked for results in this area, we have not yet a single case of high-level corruption successfully concluded in court”, he said.

In this context Shasha says the issue of visa liberalisation with Kosovo is blocked overall within EU institutions, and we see no signal that the visa liberalisation issue will move within 2019.

Until the end of this year, all meetings of the EU Council of Ministers in all its configurations are public, known when they will be held and the meeting of the Council of Ministers responsible for the visa liberalisation issue is the meeting for justice and home affairs. This council in this composition will meet twice again by the end of the year, in early October and in the first week of December, and in none of the agendas of these meetings Kosovo does not figure there”, he said.

Unlike Kosovo in July 2018, it received the recommendation for visa liberalisation and currently remains a frozen issue, especially, this is being seen in the pre-election campaign, where parliamentary and prime ministerial candidates do not mention the visa liberalisation issue.