Taking EU membership candidate status could be conditioned on dialogue with Serbia

Despite meeting the criteria and warning of the prime minister, Albin Kurti that next year they will apply for EU membership, gaining candidate country status could be conditioned with progress achieved in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

EU integration process recognitions say the application for membership is a confirmation of Kosovo's strategic goals, but nothing more, as dialogue with Serbia, sticking to visa liberalisation and its neutral approach to the EU, ahead of Kosovo, will make the country's Euro-integration process difficult. On the other hand, at the ruling party, Vetevendosje Movement say Kosovo has met all criteria for EU membership and that they will do the same next year.

International Relations Professor Arben Fetosti welcomes the executive's warning of EU membership application, but says the whole process will be conditional on Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

Kosovo's eventual application for candidate status for me would only be a confirmation of our strategic goal of the European integration process, but nothing more. As the whole process will continue to be conditional on dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, respectively, on creating conditions to complete this process with an agreement as originally designed. Of course it's challenging, it's not clear whether we will have an agreement next year, or”, he tells Kosovo Press.

The challenger to obtain candidate country status for EU membership is also seeing Emir Abrashi from Democracy Plus.

“In the situation that we are in, the EU has a neutral approach towards Kosovo, so even if we achieve that through an application we receive candidate country status we would have very difficult ravaging in the EU membership process. We should bear in mind that the Republic of Kosovo is not even able to gain visa liberalisation now and how many years due to no internal co-ordination for within EU states, and it would be very difficult at this stage to obtain EU membership candidate status”, Abrashi tells Kosovas.

More optimistic about obtaining candidate country status, says Vetevendosje Movement MP Arbene Kryziu-Hyseni.

She says of Kosovo Preress, that Kosovo has met all criteria and deserves EU membership application.

“We have decided that in the coming year we will submit the application to become a candidate because we have fulfilled all the criteria the EU requested from us in relation to the integration process. We have even had additional criteria that have been constantly requested that we have also fulfilled. We are not saying that we have fulfilled them, but for this we have also received confirmation from the EU itself... I consider that we have had some kind of injustice done to us because these criteria haven't been steadily added, but it's good that we have shown commitment to their realization because we are a state of aspirations towards the EU and we're doing our best to meet all the criteria required by us as a state. So this is not a claim that we're doing based on the outcome we've had, on the work we've had so far that it's positive, successful, and shows that we're willing to go towards the EU”, she says.

Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the only states in the region that do not have candidate status for membership in the European Union. / KP