The EU’s Kosovo Rapporteur Viola von Crammon said that without an agreement with Serbia, the country would never enter the EU.
In her report for 2021, which will be voted on in European Parliament on Wednesday, Crammon highlighted progress on the rule of law, corruption, environmental issues, and of course, the country’s EU perspective.
But on the matter of Serbia, which refuses to recognise Kosovo’s sovereignty, she was blunt.
“An essential element of Kosovo’s integration path is the EU-led dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo. EU Special Envoy Miroslav Lajcak has our full support, and there is a unique trans-Atlantic unity. Yet without a legally binding normalisation agreement, the accession to EU will not occur,” she wrote on Twitter.
EU-led dialogue has been ongoing since 2011 but is yet to yield any tangible results and the leaders of the two countries have not even met face to face during the process.
Crammon addressed the issue of the ongoing failure of the EU to grant visa liberalisation, despite the country having met all of the conditions several years ago.
“The citizens of #Kosovo are well aware that @Europarl_EN and me personally have repeatedly reiterated the need for immediate granting of #visaliberalisation which is long overdue despite the fact that Kosovo has met all the criteria,” she wrote on Twitter, adding that “All citizens of Kosovo deserve to live in a country that enjoys full international respect and clear European integration perspective.”
After the EU-Western Balkan summit at the end of June which left Kosovo disappointed, Crammon said on Twitter that the issue of visa liberalisation was being held up, specifically, by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
Repeated requests for comment from the French interior ministry by Exit have been ignored.
