Mandl: Kosovo, Serbia must not be taken as the same, one has been a victim, one aggressive

At the European Parliament's discussion on Kosovo's EU membership, Mandl has said that the year 2022 taught leaders in the world that they must be united to defend European values, something he said Kosovo has done for decades forced by Serbia's aggression.

He has stressed that Kosovo has shown an example of how the modern state is fought and created.

We must not forget that it was the same year when the free world was more united than ever, and many actors in the free world realized more that it is important that we take care of our freedom, our values, to protect them against aggression. This is something Kosovo citizens have been doing for decades and have been forced to do unfortunately because it's those who were attacked 25 years ago and they showed us a clear example of how they could fight, but also how to create a modern state, state with modern constitution, with a rule of”, Mandl said.

The Eurodeput has called on EU bodies to take into account Kosovo's visionary approach and the desire of 90% of Kosovo citizens to be part of the European family.

According to Mandl, Kosovo is more ready for the EU than all other Western Balkan states, and Serbia stands last.

Besides methodology, besides our bureaucratic approach, besides the questionnaire that you should have, besides our agendas, we have to ask a question: who is ready for European values, who is ready to understand properly the freedom, human dignity, democracy, rule of law, and then we can see that in the Western Balkans of all countries, Kosovo is more ready for this issue than all others, and Serbia is the last”.

Meanwhile, citing the summit, which will be held on March 18th in northern Macedonia between the Kosovo and the Serbian sides, Mandl has added that they should not be thought of as the same Kosovo and Serbia, as one has been the victim and the other the aggressor.

We have a week to make some very important decisions, and we should not think that these two countries are the same, no, because one country has historically been the aggressor and the other has been the victim. During this time we have seen that one country has not stood in favour of sanctions, and another state has been fully in favour of sanctions and in full compliance with all of our security policy”.

Mandl has encouraged the EU to review Kosovo's application well.

We should encourage the EU presidency and the entire EU Council to look deeply at the application Kosovo has made for membership and not to dwell on bureaucracy, but to look at vision, leadership”.