EP's Konjufca: Visa Blocking Is Unreasonable

Kosovo Parliament Speaker Glauk Konjufca said that blocking the visa liberalisation process by some European Union member states is unreasonable and such as reducing the spirit of European values in our country.

He made these comments today at the Second European Parliament Summit with the chairman of the Western Balkans, in which he discussed the fundamental role of parliaments in the EU enlargement process in the post-COVID era and further strengthening of parliamentary co-operation.

Konjufca said EU delays for abolishing visas for Kosovo citizens should not serve as an excuse for failing to perform domestic duties.

“Reforms in justice, economy, administration and education are irreplaceable. Strengthening democracy and rule of law, the determined fight against corruption and empowering transparency, as well as the uncompetitive protection of human and minority rights are the quaa nou of free and open societies”, Konjufca said.

Among other things Konjufca spoke of the challenges brought to the world by the Tyvid-19 virus and the damage it did to states in people and economies. He said the government of Kosovo has presented an ambitious plan of mass inoculation that would include 60% of those who need vaccines by the end of this year.

He added that despite the major difficulties brought on by the pandemic, the most important project of the EU should never be forgotten.

Konjufca said peace and stability in the Western Balkans are relatively linked to the EU's approach to this complex and sensitive region.

“in the same measure that it is necessary for us to unite in the European family, but according to the same need, the EU needs the involvement of the Western Balkans in its Bay. The right lessons are available in history”, Konjufca said.

He said that in the early 1990s in Europe there were also short-term political forces which the breakup crisis of Yugoslavia saw as an external fire required to keep a safe distance.

Why burn our hands unnecessarily in a host of wars that are not ours? But that's exactly what the fire was about to spread across the Balkans. It was the actual international political-military intervention in the Balkans in 1995 and 1999 that gave peace a chance and stabilised our region”, Konjufca said.

For 22 years, he added, there are no more wars, while the few open issues remain to be resolved with negotiations. But, as Konjufca said, the optimism and enthusiasm of the Western Balkan peoples for the EU is not an unconventional worship. According to him, in today's conditions the countries of the Western Balkans may feel sided and depressed only if the main EU states apply the doctrine called “immediately deepening, then enlargement”.

If a European consensus is created on this strategy, the damage that will be done to the Western Balkans will be colossal. I very much hope that the projects that are being shown these last two years under regional co-operation platforms like mini-Shengen's work do not have the position of biberon that replaces BP integration into the EU with a mortorium until the EU carries out its deepening”, the head of the Kosovo legislature stressed.