Pristina/Brussels, 05/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Kosovan government is calling on the European Union to accelerate the process of normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia. In the coming months, the Kosovan government wants a final political agreement with Serbia.
“The time has come for the EU to accelerate the process” of normalisation, of pushing Serbia to accelerate the process, the Kosovan minister for European integration, Bekim Çollaku, told a few journalists including from EUROPE. He stated that the citizens' support for this “sensitive process” that began in 2011 is diminishing and, in his view, continuing just a “technical” dialogue would only make their discontent greater. After a political agreement in April 2013 (see EUROPE 10832), Serbia and Kosovo finalised several technical agreements, including that of August 2015.
“The dialogue must not be transformed into a routine that would constitute setting up what has been decided in Brussels (…) The dialogue must be transformed into a great result, a great agreement between Serbia and Kosovo”, the Kosovan minister for foreign affairs, Hashim Thaçi, also said, at the Germa Hill Conference in Pristina on Tuesday 2 February. This agreement, according to which neither of the two parties would block the other's membership of the EU or of any other international organisation, including the UN, could be reached in three to five months of active discussions, in Thaçi's opinion.
Kosovo's recognition by Serbia “must not be produced forcedly”, in Çollaku's view. “If Serbia's membership of the EU is conditional upon it ensuring that it will never block Kosovo's membership of the UN or any other international organisation, including the EU, if Serbia does this, it's more than the recognition of Kosovo. We can live without the recognition of Serbia”, he said, stating that Pristina was not able to ask Belgrade to recognise it.
Çollaku added that the EU had not decided if Serbia's formal recognition of Kosovo was necessary before Serbia's membership of the EU. As the deputy minister for foreign affairs, Petrit Selimi, told several journalists including from EUROPE, the modus operandi could be that of the two Germanies, which are not recognised yet without preventing the other being part of international organisations.
In Thaçi's view, such an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo would also push the countries that do not recognise Kosovo, including five EU member states (Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain) to do so.
In the meantime, the so-called 'technical' dialogue, which could be suspended again for a few months due to early elections in Serbia in the spring, is bearing results. Kosovo is expected to receive its telephone code in 2016, which was obtained at the dialogue with Serbia in August 2015 (see EUROPE 11375). The outcome of another agreement, the Association of Serbian Municipalities, is also expected to see the light of day this year, according to Çollaku and Selimi. In Çollaku's view, work on the technical aspects should begin “as quickly as possible”. In Selimi's view, Kosovo must finish the legal work “in the coming weeks and months” - in other words, the decree and statute of the organisation which will have to be approved and reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
Relations are also improving on the ground. Kosovan and Serbian border police are working under the 25 August agreement on the freedom of movement, and are cooperating unofficially at the border, the colonel for border checks and surveillance in the Kosovan police, Kamer Januzaj, told EUROPE. However, although the police officers are exchanging information about trafficking, all other information is still exchanged through the European civilian mission EULEX. There are six border crossing points between Serbia and Kosovo.
Resuming dialogue with the opposition. Kosovo is nevertheless affected by the demonstrations against the normalisation of relations with Serbia. “We are also trying to bring the opposition parties into this process (Ed: of normalising relations). We cannot force them but we have opened the door to them”, said the minister for European integration. For several months now, the opposition has been violently boycotting the activities of the Kosovan Parliament because it wants this normalisation of relations to be abandoned. According to the leader of the European integration committee at the Kosovan Parliament, Teuta Sahatqija, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and European deputies have offered their help for bringing the five political leaders together so that a way out of the political crisis can be found.
No immediate request for membership. While the normalisation of relations is needed for Kosovo to move forward on the path to joining the European Union, the country has made progress on this path with the signature of the stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) with the EU - the first contractual agreement between the EU and Pristina. After a final approval from the Council of the EU, the SAA is expected to enter into force in the spring.
However, unlike Bosnia-Herzegovina which is expected to submit its request to become an EU candidate in February (see EUROPE 11476), Kosovo would like to take its time. “It's too early to plan that”, Çollaku said, with only 23 of the 28 EU member states recognising Kosovo. “We are going to start the SAA and record lasting progress in its implementation before thinking about submitting our application”, Çollaku added, saying that he did not expect that to happen before two years. “There's no urgency”, he concluded.
Injustice on the question of visas. Although there is no urgency for submitting an application to the EU, Kosovo on the other hand believes that its citizens should obtain the possibility of travelling without a visa in the EU immediately, as is already the case for all the other Western Balkan countries. “It is not fair that Kosovo is the only country in the Balkans whose citizens do not travel with a visa-free regime”, Selimi said, adding that the Kosovans were frustrated. He nevertheless hoped that it will still be possible for Pristina to obtain the visa-free regime in 2016.
Although the process of visa liberalisation for Kosovo began four years ago, the last Commission report, published in December 2015, states that the country must still progress on eight criteria (see EUROPE 11457). And while the other Balkans countries had to fulfil around 50 conditions, Kosovo has to respect 98 criteria, Selimi and Çollaku regretted. Çollaku also considered that the Commission was not “fair” with his country, and he complained of new criteria appearing at each new progress assessment mission. “We cannot do anything in return except fulfil the criteria”, he said.
In the face of criticism at the number of Kosovans requesting asylum in the EU, Selimi said that 30,000 Kosovans had indeed requested asylum in Hungary in February 2015 but that there were no more than five who did so in December. Similarly, there were 13,000 Kosovans to make such a request in Germany in March 2015, and only 300 in December. Selimi said that his country had conducted a big information campaign and actions against traffickers.
European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos is due to visit Kosovo in February to assess the progress made since December. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)