Terras, political parties: Remove Kosovo from crisis, find common denominator

He added that his advice is to have governments as soon as possible to start working on reforms.

My first “is that as soon as possible the way to making a coalition government will be able to act quickly and start with all the reforms planned. But first of all, the most important issue is that there is a functional” government, Terras said in Clankosova.tv.

Eurodeputeti hopes that all political parties can put their differences aside and try to find the common denominator to create a strong and functional government.

Despite political blockades in the country in recent years, Terras thinks that Kosovo is still on a good track towards the European Union.

He says it was European parliamentarians who pushed the commissioner for expansion, Marta Kos, to visit Kosovo.

“Now, every important person of European institutions has visited Kosovo and the order was the same -- everyone thinks Kosovo is on a good track and that a functional government should be there. This to have a partner to negotiate and have a partner for candidate status for Kosovo and to open accession talks at Union”, Terras said in Info Magazine.

Riho Terras said further that the single and biggest challenge for the EU, in the context of opening talks with Kosovo for membership, is that five Union member states do not recognise Kosovo so far.

We from our side, the European Parliament, are trying to approach these countries and ask them what they're thinking. It's been more than 20 years and they still don't know what the road is ahead of them, what's their plan, that they're going to continue with this”.

For my opinion, the European Commission should open discussions and grant Kosovo candidate country status anyway. That despite the fact that some countries have not recognised Kosovo. And opening accession talks would also be a good sign for non-recognising countries”, the eurodepute stressed.

Speaking of the security situation in the country, Terras said that the last time he was in Kosovo, he also visited KFOR headquarters. “Porossia by KFOR leadership was quite positive and that the situation has sufficiently stabilised and that nothing stands in the way of having good inter-side relations; first with Serbia and with the Serb minority” in Kosovo.

For the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue issue, Terras said the EU must do all it can to push both sides into dialogue “and postpone Serbia as much as it is pushing Kosovo”.

The problem now is that I don't see the European Union very active in relation to the Serbian side. And Serbia does not want to find a way out of this” situation, the Eurodeputet from Estonia added.

He says the best way for both sides “is to forget conflicts and engage jointly to have a peaceful” region.

The “to find ways for this and the EU to mediate in this process and to push the two states to find ways for this”, Terras said, although according to him the emissary for dialogue, Peter Sorensen, has not done enough in this regard.

But after all, according to him, Kosovo and Serbia are only “and Serbia are able to solve the” problem.