Kosovo welcomes any initiative aimed at accelerating integration into the European Union, but remains skeptical of ideas that could keep it in an intermediate status.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, acting Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca says that inclusion in the European Common Market could be a step forward, but emphasizes that there are no clear details yet.
"We welcome any new plan that aims to integrate the Western Balkan countries more quickly into the European Union... Kosovo's position is that we do not support any proposal that creates waiting rooms in the EU," says Konjufca.
Konjufca participated in the proceedings of the GLOBSEC security forum in Prague, where he also spoke about REL.
Radio Free Europe: Mr. Konjufca, in recent days the idea of some European Union countries to include the Western Balkan countries in the European Common Market has been circulating, to push them forward on their path towards full EU membership. What is the position of the Kosovo authorities towards this initiative?
Glaucus Konjufca: To be honest, we welcome any new plan that aims to more quickly integrate the Western Balkan countries into the European Union.
From the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement until the opening of accession negotiations, what constitutes the core of the negotiations for each country are mainly economic negotiations, on how to create all the necessary mechanisms for the inclusion of the respective country in the single market.
So this initiative, which was explicitly welcomed by Chancellor [German, Friedrich] Merz, and pushed forward by countries like Austria and the Czech Republic, is, in a way, to give a new speed to the enlargement process.
This is welcome, but what is more important in this process, as much as the idea, are the details, which we do not yet have.
I expect that, in the coming weeks, these countries will move towards details and elaborations regarding moving forward.
Radio Free Europe: Do you believe that this will be a transitional step towards the EU?
Glaucus Konjufca: If they divide it into phases, where some prepare to join the EU, others can be observers right now… let's see. What we have said, which is Kosovo's position, is that we do not support any proposal that creates waiting rooms in the European Union. Now, there are political problems, for example, those who do not recognize Kosovo and others. But, we do not want waiting rooms in the EU.
Radio Free Europe: However, Kosovo has its application for EU membership in the waiting room as early as 2022…
Glaucus Konjufca: Yes, it has not been addressed, that's true. Here, the elephant in the room is clearly political and that is clearly the dialogue with Serbia.
I think that non-recognizing states and dialogue with Serbia keep our application, which was submitted almost four years ago, untreated.
The official answer that Brussels gives, every time we raise this issue, is: you need to work more with the member states. When we say with the member states, we mean the non-recognizing countries. We constantly work with them – with Spain, with Greece and with the others.
However, those conversations always bring up good neighborly relations with Serbia, which I think - through no fault of ours - have suffered major blows to trust in the last two or three years, due to attacks like the one in Banjska.
Radio Free Europe: Does the Government of Kosovo, even though it is now in office, have any concrete plans to push this process forward?
Glaucus Konjufca: We have approved the EU Growth Plan in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo is one of the countries that has adopted the European reform agenda and is implementing it – it is the country with perhaps the highest commitment in the Western Balkans regarding this agenda.
But when it comes to reforms and [EU] funds, political unity, the functionality of democracy and institutions are also very important. Because if we have such vicissitudes by December, we will lose 250 million euros - which means that it is 25%-30% of the Growth Plan.
However, despite the reforms we are making, it seems that sometimes in negotiations with the EU, the dialogue with Serbia weighs more than the internal reforms we are making.
Because, if you compare Kosovo to other countries, in terms of democracy, economic growth, judicial independence, etc., Kosovo is far ahead.
Radio Free Europe: But, we had a publication in recent days, based on data from the International Monetary Fund, that listed Kosovo as the second poorest country in Europe.
Glaucus Konjufca: Yes, but at the same time, the World Bank says that Kosovo will have stable economic growth of over 4 percent. This narrows the gap with other countries.
For Kosovo to surpass four or five countries is not easy, because you have Montenegro, you have Serbia, you have countries that have had much more consolidated economies than Kosovo, which emerged devastated by the war.
It is enough for us to reduce the differences with these countries.
Radio Free Europe: We are on the eve of the June 7 elections and we are necessarily interested in your expectations from this process...
Glaucus Konjufca: It was not good news that Kosovo is going to the third elections in a year and a half, but it belongs to the citizens of Kosovo. I do not want to delve deeply into the details of our political scene from this forum, in which I am in the capacity of Foreign Minister, because I will do that when I return to Kosovo.
Radio Free Europe: Do you expect these elections to lead to the formation of all institutions, up to the election of the president?
Glaucus Konjufca: Yes, I believe so. I am very optimistic that these will be the last elections for the next four years.
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