The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, said on Friday that Kosovo is asking the European Union to treat it just like Serbia in its aspirations for membership in the European Union.
He made these statements during a presentation at the Kosovo Assembly’s European Integration Commission.
During his presentation, Bislimi was asked why Kosovo is seeking to separate the dialogue process with Serbia –mediated by the European Union – from the process of Kosovo’s integration into the European bloc.
“The dialogue is linked to European integration in the Stabilization and Association Agreement. The dialogue is the main part of the agreement’s chapters, therefore progress has been linked to this. What we have said is that the treatment of the correlation between progress in dialogue and progress on the path towards the EU should be equal for Kosovo as well as for Serbia,” he said.
Kosovo applied for EU membership in December 2022, and now only has a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU.
According to him, Serbia has been enabled to proceed simultaneously with both processes, while in the case of Kosovo, it has been said that for progress towards integration, there must be progress in dialogue.
As an illustration, he said that if it might take five years for Serbia to finalize the integration process, for Kosovo that time would extend to 10 years.
Bislimi said he understands why the EU insists that countries aiming for the bloc must have resolved all bilateral disagreements, however, “membership is something else”.
On December 6 last year, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had warned that there is a possibility that the Ohrid Agreement could become part of the Chapter 35 negotiations with the European Union, and a condition for Serbia’s accession to this bloc.
Chapter 35 includes Serbia’s admission to the EU, including its relationship with Kosovo.
The Ohrid Agreement – reached between the two countries in March last year – stipulates that Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s state symbols, does not oppose Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, and the parties respect each other’s integrity and territorial sovereignty.
Some sources of Radio Free Europe had said in December that some EU member states will propose that Serbia’s negotiating framework for EU membership include the implementation of the Agreement on the normalization of relations with Kosovo and all obligations from past agreements within the dialogue framework.
Kosovo and Serbia are part of the EU-mediated dialogue for the normalization of relations since 2011.
The parties have signed a series of agreements, but not all have been implemented.
