21 minutes agoKosovo celebrates Europe Day, but its path to EU is long, very challenging
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)Europe's day is also marked in our country today. Since the declaration of independence, Kosovo has consistently moved towards European integration, as well as its goals. Despite this, connoisseurs of the European integration process estimate that Kosovo's path towards membership in the European Union is long and quite challenging. [...]
The May 9th 1950 statement, which France's chief diplomat Robert Schuman appealed to France, Germany, and other European countries to bring together coal and steel products, is praised as the founding initiative of what is now the European Union.
May 9th has been announced and celebrated as Day of Europe since 1985, when EU leaders made such a decision at the Milan Summit.
Since declaring independence, Europe's Day is also marked by Kosovo, aimed at integrations and membership in the European Union.
In order to approach, Kosovo and the European Union signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement in October 2015. In May 2022, Kosovo applied for membership in the Council of Europe. While, in December of the same year, it applied for membership in the European Union.
Speaking to Radio Kosovo, European Integration Professor Dritaro Arifi says Kosovo is far from European integration. Even obtaining the candidate country's status for EU membership is a difficult process, Arifi says, which links it to non-recognition states.
Kosovo's “Application will still not be a priority because of political disputes or Kosovo's non-recognition by the five European Union member states. This completely complicates the situation. Kosovo in principle meets the conditions for having candidate status. But to integrate into the EU, the road is too long. We are also dealing with law enforcement”, he said.
Politicalologist Arta Tahiri-Beqa also says Kosovo is far from integrating into the European Union and other European organisations.
For the moment, unfortunately, from all Balkan states, Kosovo remains the most distant in the field of integration, or real achievements towards European integration. We celebrate Europe Day. We are almost of those few states that even celebrate and not work this day, but that, unfortunately, we are far from the European integration process”, Tahiri-Beqa said.
Although Kosovo is far from European integration, due to political obstacles, May 9th Europe Day is marked as an official holiday.
