Kurti in Brussels: We are for dialogue, but dialogue that is well prepared and principled

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has delivered a speech to the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee today.

The two-day period is standing in Brussels, where you have held meetings with senior European Parliament leaders.

Below, you can read the full speech of Prime Minister Kurti:

Good evening. Bonsoir. Guten Abend. (Good evening)

Honored Chief, honored members, honored friends, it's an honor to be here with you today.

First, let me thank you for the continued support you have given our country and also for your recent resolution, which welcomes and reaffirms the prospect of expanding for Kosovo and liberalising visas.

The flight from Pristina to Brussels takes less than three hours, but to get here we must overcome some major barriers caused by visa restrictions, misperception, and prejudice.

I know that I am not the first leader to speak in this honorable institution, and other leaders from Kosovo have spoken before me under different circumstances and times. Today I am speaking to you as Prime Minister of a sovereign and independent state, small but important but poor but full of hope, young but ancient at the same time, who has sometimes defended our common European values.

As a people we've suffered empire conquests and various regimes that wanted to assimilate our language and culture, take over our lands and wipe out our existence, which affected the climax in 1999 from the genocide and debint of near 1 million people from Kosovo in 1999.

After World War II, the world became together to prevent such atrocities and horrors from being repeated in Europe, however, they occurred in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

71 years ago, while Europe was cleaning up the remaining ruins of war, times when suffering was still intense, hatred and distrust prevailed, and justice had not come to the country, the idea of co-operation arose through joint institutions.

The founding fathers of the European Union had experienced the powerful destruction of war, and they witnessed the dark side of human reason. Where others saw inevitable war, they saw the possibility of peace and co-operation, and when others saw competition, with each case winning is the loss of the other, they saw the possibility of everyone winning.

History is a long series of difficult lessons. Perhaps the most important part to learn is that peace requires both justice and responsibility. We know that without the Nuremberg trials and the kneeling of Willy Brandt, reconciliation would never happen.

The European Union was built through the battle against fascism, and European peace is essentially anti-fascism.

So we should never take neither the EU nor peace, and we should remember that peace is not just the absence of violent conflict, but the active presence of true justice. A just peace with a welfare state that works for all regardless of nationality, religion, and gender.

This brings me to Kosovo and to a very controversial dialogue with Serbia.

Kosovo accepts dialogue with Serbia, wants to resolve all unresolved issues, wants peaceful relations and peaceful co-operation so that both our countries and our people can work and live in harmony, side by side and together.

For this very reason, 13 years ago, after a negotiation process in Vienna, led by a special UN envoy, with the consent of world democracies, Kosovo was declared sovereign and independent. Independence was a compromise based on a comprehensive agreement which declared Kosovo, a people consisting of 95% Albanians, as multiethnic society; created majority Serb community municipalities, and specific areas protected within the territory for religious sites, and many other expanded and special rights, especially for the Serb community.

Today, in our parliament, Serbs and other minorities have not only reserved seats, but a double majority on many laws and constitutions. Rights that cannot be compared closely to other European states.

These are not just opinions to argue about, but facts to face.

Those who have followed me and the movement I belong to, know that as an activist from the beginning I have rejected the special rights and specific areas, and have contributed to independence and self-rule as a right that belongs to us as a people.

Now as prime minister, who has won over 50% of the vote in the country, my first task is to defend our sovereignty, independence and constitution. So we are for dialogue, but dialogue that is well prepared and principled, fair and equal. So let me mention these principles:

The first is acceptance of reality. That means we can't go back to before independence. Kosovo's independence, based on the Ahtisaari package, was a compromise. Opening this package implies opening up a list of desires and incentives, which would lead to unpredictable events and undesirable consequences.

The second is acceptance of the truth. Serbia must admit its crimes and wrongdoing in the past in Kosovo. To stop genocide, NATO had to bomb Belgrade in Serbia because it was Belgrade with the Milosevic regime that made genocide in Kosovo. It was state equipment with government officials and a known chain of command for all. However, after the end of the war in Kosovo and after the Milosevic regime, the new government in Serbia has not distanced itself from Milosevic and war crimes. Not distanced from war crimes, Serbia is being further identified with them.

The third is the equality of representatives. At each table we sit as equals to solve existing problems and not create new problems. Kosovo is not an issue in dialogue, but a set of dialogue, and this should be well understood before every new round of talks with Serbia.

Fourth, citizens must be the ultimate beneficiaries. Dialogue cannot be done to preserve the reputation or career of incumbent politicians but to improve the lives of citizens on the ground. This means that we offer real solutions to real problems, such as the fate of missing persons, of whom one-third are not Albanians, such as providing drinking water and continuous electricity, building roads and bridges, and bringing communities closer to a common goal. This is the kind of dialogue we want to pursue and that is in line with EU principles on inclusion, co-existence, solidarity and justice.

We must address debts, heritage and reparations of war;

Approximately 3 billion euros in property and nonproval damage to unpaid pensions.

Over 400m euros in property damage and the inexplicable damage to electricity waste.

Kosovo's assets in Serbia and other former RSFJ republics, whose status has not yet been addressed.

War reparations that should include guarantees of non-relapsion, compensation and compensation.

These are things we need to talk about and solve, and that my government is fully committed to.

Europe has given the world so much, but it has also learned many lessons through war and Enlightenment, oppression and revolution, and has found peace only by accepting reality and truth.

That's what we're looking for. A mirror that we see ourselves and know ourselves because history cannot be ignored because it can be repeated.

Every spring, Kosovo mourns and remembers massacres by the Serbian regime in 1998 and 1999, in every corner of the country.

Until today, we still have 1639 missing persons and 22 years after the war, their families still cannot place flowers in their graves and grieve in the traditional way. Their wounds are our wounds. Their suffering is our suffering. That's why the first issue we have to solve is the fate of missing persons. If we cannot make progress in this area, then there is difficulty in making any progress in another area. .

Thus, we must not ignore history, for ignoring it will mean ignoring the teachings that are written in the tombs of this continent.

The European Union is the world's most successful peace, prosperity and prosperity project. But your progress and prosperity should be shared.

I thank this institution that supports Kosovo in its most difficult time and is pro-actively seeking to advance Kosovo on its EU path, but we have to do more.

EU nations on the Council should not block democratic will in parliament. Kosovo should be granted visa liberalisation and take a clear path towards EU integration without veto and without impasses

We should not seek to copy an EU into the Balkans through several initiatives that can only delay our membership, but we must increase our regional co-operation in order for it to make the membership process easier and faster.

The Western Balkans are surrounded by EU countries and we should be treated as future members, not neighbours. The sooner we move towards the EU, the safer Europe will become and free from foreign interventions that require destabilisation.

In conclusion, I believe it is in the interest of the EU and Europe to come up with a Mini-Marsall, which would speed up reforms and full membership. The US Marshall Plan saved and built Europe and created economic miracles, now is the time for the EU to save and build the Western Balkans.