Belgrade urges the EU to shorten the process with Kosovo after the country’s president, speaker and prime minister signed the application in Pristina. The document will be handed over to the current EU presidency, the Czech Republic, on Thursday.
— This is the beginning of a new chapter, said Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, adding that future progress in the EU process now depends on the country’s willingness for reforms that strengthen democracy and the economy.
However, the road before Kosovo can be admitted into the EU is believed to be both long and difficult – not least because of the tensions with Serbia, which Kosovo declared independent from 2008. Belgrade states that it will urge the five EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo (Greece, Spain, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus), plus Hungary, to put the brakes on Kosovo in Brussels.
Some of the countries in the Western Balkans have been in the EU’s waiting room for over ten years – North Macedonia for a full 18. Above all, question marks remain regarding legal certainty, corruption and organized crime. Serbia also wants to become a member of the Union.