Top diplomat meeting for enlargement, Kosovo seeks questionnaire, EU candidate status

Following the informal meeting of ministers for European EU affairs, attended by ministers from the Western Balkans, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said at a media conference that Albania and Montenegro are the two candidate countries that advanced towards EU membership earlier.

She said that for other countries the criteria based on meritocracy are worth, and said much work is needed to meet the targets.

Journalists asked Kos whether the deadline mentioned for 2030 is a realistic goal for all countries, or only for Albania and Montenegro.

Kos, earlier at the conference, cited these two countries, said that during the meeting, all candidate countries have spoken about.

I only mentioned two places now at the press conference, but we talked about all the places in the ministerial. We also had representatives from all countries. I mentioned those two places because they're more advanced. As you know, Montenegro has already opened all the chapters, so now we're only in the closing phase. And the realistic perspective, from the technical point of view, is that we can conclude negotiations at the end of next year, 2026, which means that, if we look at the average time to ratify membership treaties, one to two years, then Montenegro can become a member country”.

For Albania, Kos said there are only two more chapters left to open, and that will happen in the autumn and that much work is needed to be able to close chapters.

But if we do that this way, and Albania is doing the reforms very well, then we can end up technically negotiating at the end of 2027. So, yes, still during the time of this current commission, Albania can become an EU member”, Kos said.

For others, as you know, always for everyone is based on merit. What we see clearly now is that if the leadership of the candidate country is really engaged and has been able to show citizens the benefits of enlargement, then even reforms are going well. And maybe sometimes we don't emphasize that enough, the role of leadership, which means, to me, how they can get to a so-called soft point, when people, citizens will feel that this is really happening”.

Kos also cited the outcome of polls with the citizens of these two countries, rather than for EU membership. Albanians in this direction were much higher in percentage than Montenegrins.

Meanwhile, journalists also asked Serbia about the handcuff between Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Kos said they are highly critical of Serbia's foreign and security policy incompatibility with Union.

Serbia's “, no. We're not hesitate at all. We are very critical. And we are in an ongoing exchange with the new Serbian government. There are some reforms they have to implement. They have handed in three reforms for media law. They still have to implement the reforms we agreed on since April on the electoral system. And, of course, we also expect them to include civil society organisations in the membership process. And we all support Serbia's path towards EU membership, but they also have to meet [reforms]. And, of course, we're also worried about free media. So our task is to support them, and we're doing this, while they have to implement [reforms], especially in terms, in general speaking, rule of law, fight corruption and free media”.

From Kosovo, incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislim attended this meeting. On table “Copenhagen Criteria and gradual integration” Bislimi has cited Kosovo's application for EU membership in 2022, seeking candidate country status.

Our “Institutions have proven the high level of preparation, so it is necessary to assess them according to meritocracy, accept the questionnaire and receive candidate country status”, Bislimi stressed./Periscopi/