The process will have to overcome several blockages: the small country of the Balkans, still in territorial conflict with Serbia, is not recognized by five member states.
by Jean-Baptiste Chastand (Vienne, regional correspondent) and Philippe Jacqué (Brussels, European office)
Kosovars leaders speak of a “historic day”. Thursday, December 15, this small state of the Balkans with a little less than 2 million inhabitants officially filed its request for membership in the European Union (EU). Since Prague, in the Czech Republic, which currently exercises the rotating presidency of the European Council, Prime Minister Albin Kurti praised, by submitting his letter of candidacy, “a historic day for the people of Kosovo and an extraordinary day for democracy in Europe “.
While Bosnia and Herzegovina officially obtained, Thursday, during the Brussels European Council its status as a candidate country in the EU, Kosovo is the last state of the Balkans to file its request for membership, a process which promises to be long and uncertain. The other five countries in the region – Serbia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina – which have preceded it have been slowing down for years, for lack of real political will and in the EU.
In Prague, Mr. Kurti spoke of a period of “nine years” to obtain this membership. “It is a long -term process,” also recognized President Kosovare, Vjosa Osmani. “But we will do our job,” she promised. The Kosovar membership file is however made even more complicated than that of its neighbors by the existence of an unresolved territorial conflict with Serbia. Belgrade does not still recognize the independence of its former region with a majority of Albanophone, proclaimed unilaterally in 2008, and maintains a form of larvé conflict in northern Kosovo, around the municipality of Mitrovica-Nord, mainly populated by Serbs who do not want not obey Pretina.
In recent months, this frozen conflict has been the subject of a sudden resumption of tensions under the effect of the will of Mr. Kurti, a leftist nationalist, to establish the sovereignty of his government on this territory of lawlessness. For European diplomats, it is impossible to consider membership until this conflict is resolved. To this is added that five EU countries (Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Romania and Slovakia) still do not recognize the independence of Kosovo, which also blocks its process of adherence to the United Nations.
need “deep reforms”
The reluctance of these countries are often explained by the presence of minorities with separatist inclinations on their own territory and these capitals will probably not change an opinion as long as there is no normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. A draft agreement was certainly proposed by France and Germany in September, but its outcome is still very uncertain.
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