(Pristina) Kosovo authorities announced on Wednesday that they had signed a formal application for EU candidate status, a laborious process further complicated by the abysmal relations between Pristina and Belgrade.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti, President Vjosa Osmani and Speaker of Parliament Glauk Konjufca signed these documents with a view to submitting them before the end of the week to the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency.
“This is a historic moment for our country which aims to open a new chapter for our state and our society,” said Albin Kurti.
The six Western Balkan countries are at very different stages on the road to integration into the EU, which on Tuesday recognized Bosnia as a candidate.
A possible recognition of Kosovo’s candidate status would only be the beginning of a long process, complicated by the fact that the territory’s independence proclaimed by Pristina in 2008 is still not recognized by Belgrade or by five member countries of the EU.
The question of normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which has been a candidate for its part since 2012, represents a major obstacle to the European integration of the two former enemies. Relations between Pristina and Belgrade have been going from crisis to crisis for years.
The European Union recently reaffirmed during a summit in Tirana its attachment to the process of enlargement in favor of the Western Balkans while the war waged by Russia in Ukraine underlines the importance for Europeans of stabilizing this fragile region. However, the effective membership of these countries remains a distant prospect.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Kosovo has sided resolutely with the West, while Serbia has been playing a delicate balancing act between East and West, condemning the Russian invasion at the UN, but refusing to align with Western sanctions against Moscow.