8 minutes agoKosovo remains the only without EU candidate status, pending application since 2022
Periskopi(an hour ago)
(an hour ago)Countries aimed at membership in the European Union have been waiting for years since handing over their applications, while Turkey continues to hold the record by about 39 years of waiting.
Northern Macedonia applied 22 years ago, Albania and Montenegro about 17 years ago, Serbia 16 years ago, and Bosnia and Herzegovina ten years ago. Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia submitted applications in 2022.
Kosovo remains the only one of the ten countries involved in the current enlargement process that has not received formal status of the candidate country. It continues to be classified by European institutions as a potential candidate country.
Kosovo submitted its membership application in December 2022, but the EU Council has not yet asked the European Commission to prepare the official opinion on the application. The Commission has declared it ready to start the assessment once it receives the request from the Council.
The process is also complicated by the fact that five EU member states -- Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia -- continue not to recognise Kosovo's independence.
