During an exclusive interview for Euronews Albania, the German ambassador to Kosovo, Joern Rohde spoke about several ‘hot topics’ concerning the challenges facing Kosovo at the present moment.

The German diplomat confirmed his support for Kurti’s administration while emphasizing that the latter should make concrete steps, when it comes to the dialogue with Serbia, and not simply resort to declarations.

“I think that the Special Envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, is doing everything in his power to mediate an agreement and we are asking both parties to sit at a roundtable and try to find a compromise because, at the end of the day, citizens want to see results. This is the reason this administration was elected, for results, not declarations,” – said the German diplomat.

In addition, he said that Kosovo has fulfilled all conditions for visa liberalization but emphasized that there is no unanimity on this matter within the EU block.

“The problem lies with several skeptic states. We, as well as the European Commission, know very well that Kosovo has fulfilled all necessary criteria. It’s a good thing that now the government is engaged with these skeptic countries and I believe this will be possible. Elections are also underway in several European countries so I remain optimistic,” – said ambassador Rohde.

The German diplomat also commented on the Open Balkan initiative, which according to him, isn’t inclusive, which is why in these circumstances, he supports the Berlin Process instead.

“The Berlin Process is inclusive. I haven’t been able to say the same thing about Open Balkan thus far. I’ve seen that 3 countries aren’t participating and this is an open case. What’s important is that the Berlin Process is an inclusive process. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been able to produce much progress, also due to the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia but we hope to overcome this,” – said the German ambassador.

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