“There is a consensus on candidate status”, Orar: Ibri Bridge Open in Co-operation with EU

He emphasises that association is one of the dialogue agreements that have been ratified in the Kosovo Assembly in 2013 and that it should be implemented without delay.

Over the years when Kosovo and Serbia are negotiating in this process of dialogue, several agreements have been reached, and the Association of the majority Serb municipalities is one of the agreements. I think only one agreement has been ratified by the Kosovo parliament by a majority two-thirds of the vote. And it's a legal obligation to do that, and to implement it, so in Latin, the Pactta Sun sevant sevandaı [the agreements must be respected], so the agreements must be respected and implemented”, Aivo Orav, chief of the EU office in Kosovo, said.

Orar underlines the fact that Kosovo and Serbia implement obligations from dialogue agreements, and this is highlighted in the Kosovo Report.

The real “is not only this year's report dealing with dialogue, but the previous report has also dealt with dialogue, because Serbia and Kosovo have initially agreed to normalise relations and the European Union is actively facilitating this process. So there is much more to be done, and so many of these obligations are in a mutual agreement that needs to be implemented. It's absolutely clear”, Orari said during an interview for Kosovapress.

Speaking to the European Commission Report, Orav claims Kosovo has made limited progress in justice reform.

There is no impasse in this report, but in some cases, yes, we have mentioned that only limited progress has been made, but there is still progress, but still few things have to be done, and here I can probably mention reform in justice when there are still few things to be done. And also media freedom, in general, has media freedom, media environment is very pluralistic, but then there are questions about ownership, transparency and media financing, where there is still much to do”, Orav added.

Citing the country's progress report, Ambassador Orav says Kosovo has had good progress in some areas, writes A2. He stressed the good functioning of visa liberalisation, the approach of Kosovo's foreign policy with the European Union, the agenda of reforms and unblocking decision-making in CEFTA. On the other hand, Orav considers the government's co-ordination with allies necessary in the opening of the Ibri Bridge.

I don't mean this bridge is a problem for the European Union. But, yes, this bridge is something that all those interested in developments in Kosovo are talking about this bridge. And now, we hope very much that if the opening of the bridge is going to take place, then it will be in very close co-operation with the European Union, with the international community and I am glad that we have those commitments by the government”, It says Orav.

As for Kosovo's application for obtaining state-run status for EU membership, Orav says that so far there is a consensus of EU member states on giving the green light to Kosovo.