Over four years since the Commission recommended visa-free EU access for Kosovo citizens, scrapping the bureaucratic and financial hurdle seems out of reach, despite the executive’s continued insistence the bloc hopeful has met its end of the bargain.
While Prague has been keen to get an agreement across the finish line before the end of its six-month stint at the EU steering wheel in December, prospects of success are dimming for Pristina as the goalposts have been moved once again.
Several EU member states, including France, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, have slowed down the Czech presidency’s push to end the EU visa requirement for Kosovo citizens as they are reportedly demanding additional security guarantees.
This comes even after four years of Commission-backed recommendations to grant visa liberalisation and the latest Czech EU Presidency push.
Kosovo remains one of the few European countries whose citizens still need a visa to enter the EU, whether for leisure, work, or education, despite having met all criteria in 2018.
“I am much more optimistic than I was a year ago,” EU Enlargement chief Olivér Várhelyi told EURACTIV on Wednesday after presenting the country’s annual enlargement progress report, confirming Kosovo had fulfilled all the points for visa liberalisation and said the EU executive would be awaiting the technical discussions.
“This will pay a dividend at the end of the year, and we will have a decision,” he added.
But the step ultimately requires the unanimous approval of all 27 EU member states, which will be hard to come by as beyond those taking issue with the visa matter, five EU member states – Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Romania, and Slovakia – do not recognise Kosovo’s independence.
New demands
At a technical-level meeting of the Council on Thursday, representatives of France, who has repeatedly blocked a decision on the visa matter, added new criteria. This is namely that visa liberalisation for Kosovo must be linked to the functioning of the European security system, ETIAS.
The electronic system enables the verification of the data of citizens of third countries who do not need a visa to enter the Schengen Area. It requires every applicant to provide name, email, date of birth, and passport and to make a payment with a debit or credit card. The application is then reviewed, and authorities give a final decision as to whether that person can enter the Schengen Area.
Currently, the system is offline, but it is expected to be online in 2023, with no exact date given.
This is the first time ETIAS has been brought up in visa liberalisation discussions.
The latest proposal, coming at the eleventh hour, was backed by officials from Madrid, Stockholm, Brussels, and The Hague, and according to some sources, Copenhagen.
The French Foreign Ministry, contacted by EURACTIV several times over the last four months on the matter, declined to comment.
Late notice
Convincing sceptical member states by the end of the Czech Presidency in December will be no easy task, which was made clear by the EU Council Visa Working Party on Thursday.
“The Working Party broadly welcomed the reopening of the discussion on the subject and generally supported the visa liberalisation process. In order to progress in this file, it will be necessary to clarify a number of related topics and continue the discussion,” the Czech presidency wrote in a statement.
The latest setback likely surprised the Czech Republic as sources from its Foreign Ministry pointed to Czechs being “slightly optimistic” before Thursday’s meeting.
Even if an agreement can be secured within the working group, the processes within the Council and other inter-institutional negotiations will probably mean that Kosovo will not get the green light before the end of the Czech Presidency, Iva Merheim-Eyre, an analyst at the Association For International Affairs, told EURACTIV Czech Republic.
Enlargement woes
The latest hiccup for Kosovo comes on the back of growing frustration in the region with the EU’s enlargement process progressing at a glacial pace, if at all.
When opening up the process to Ukraine and Moldova by granting the two countries EU candidate status this summer, bloc officials also promised to speed up the procedure for their furious Western Balkan counterparts, some of whom have been in negotiations for club membership for more than a decade.
A small step came on Wednesday when the EU executive recommended member states grant candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina, meaning Kosovo would be the only country in the region that remains a potential candidate.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani have confirmed the country will apply for EU membership by the end of the year, driven forward by fears of instability in the region amid the Russian war in Ukraine and Moscow’s influence over Pristina’s foe Serbia.
However, politicians and analysts point out the European Commission is largely failing to meet expectations in the region while saying its annual reports keeping track of the process have become “highly irrelevant”.
