Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti (left) hands over his country’s application letter for European Union membership to Czech Minister for European Affairs Mikulas Bek in Prague December 15, 2022. MICHAL CIZEK / AFP
Kosovar leaders speak of a “historic day”. On Thursday, December 15, the small Balkan country with almost 2 million inhabitants officially submitted its application for membership in the European Union (EU). From Prague, Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, in delivering his candidacy letter, hailed “a historic day for the people of Kosovo and an exceptional day for democracy in Europe”. .
While Bosnia and Herzegovina officially received its status as an EU accession candidate at the European Council in Brussels on Thursday, Kosovo is the last Balkan state to submit its lengthy and uncertain application for membership. The five other countries in the region that preceded it – Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina – have been slow to progress for years due to a lack of real political will on the ground and in the EU.
In Prague, Mr. Kurti spoke of a period of “nine years” to obtain this membership. “It’s a long-term process,” Kosovan President Vjosa Osmani admitted. “But we’ll do our job,” she promised. However, Kosovo’s membership record is further complicated than that of its neighbors by the existence of an unresolved territorial dispute with Serbia. Still not recognizing the independence of its former Albanian-majority region, unilaterally proclaimed in 2008, Belgrade maintains a kind of latent conflict in northern Kosovo, around the municipality of Mitrovica-Nord, populated mostly by Serbs who don’t want Pristina either to obey.
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In recent months, this frozen conflict has been the subject of a sudden resurgence of tension over the will of Mr. Kurti, a left-wing nationalist, to establish his government’s sovereignty in this unrighteous territory. For European diplomats, membership is inconceivable as long as this conflict has not been resolved. In addition, five EU countries (Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Slovakia) still do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, which is also blocking Kosovo’s accession process to the United Nations.
Need for “profound reforms”
The reluctance of these countries is often explained by the presence of minorities with separatist tendencies on their own territory, and these capitals are unlikely to change their minds until normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina occurs. A draft agreement was certainly proposed by France and Germany in September, but its outcome is still very uncertain.
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