The political atmosphere for withdrawal of military forces from Kosovo has been created by the declaration and the recommendations to the Council for Stabilization and Association adopted yesterday in Pristina, and the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Stabilization and Association on the occasion of coming into force of the Stabilization and Association Agreement signed between Kosovo and the EU, said the paper’s source from the European Parliament, who did not want to talk about it publicly. The source comes from the group of the EU states which did not recognize Kosovo and are lobbying against its independence.
The paper had an insight into the draft declaration, and its amendments to the text, which stipulate that there is still a group in the EU which, on important issues in the context of the European integration of Kosovo, is trying to mitigate the features of independence of Kosovo and continues to insist on that.
The Declaration welcomes coming into force of the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and Kosovo on 1 April 2016, and the first contractual relations which is the basis for the establishment of the joint institutional framework between the EU and Kosovo. It is positively noted that the Committee is the first joint body established under the auspices of the SAA, which paves the way for the integration of Kosovo into the EU, particularly improving political dialogue and closer economic integration. The Committee has called on the Kosovo government to focus on the implementation of key reforms required to fulfill the obligations deriving from the SAA. The amendment submitted provides for ‘paving the way for the integration of Kosovo in the EU’, and reiterates the call on the Kosovo government to focus on the implementation of the key reforms needed to fulfill the obligations deriving from the SAA.
The second item of the declaration states that five states did not formally recognize Kosovo, and underlines that the recognition would facilitate the process of European integration of Kosovo. The amendment to this item, however, underlines that eighty five UN member states did nor formally recognize the independence of Kosovo.
The third item of the declaration hails the progress reached in the framework of the process of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, however it highlights concerns with regard to the high number of missing persons and poor progress made in resolving these cases. It calls on finding the truth, as a precondition for the start of the process of reconciliation. The amendment voices concerns with regard to the high number of kidnapped and missing persons, members of all ethnic groups and particularly Serbs, Turks, Roma and Gorani. It also expresses concerns that only four cases were resolved in 2015, which is the lowest annual number recorded since the end of the conflict, and recalls that 1666 cases of missing persons remain to be resolved.
The fourth item of the declaration hails the decision of the European Commission expected for a long time to recommend a visa-free regime for Kosovo’s people and calls the Committee to adopt it quickly and fully, and expresses satisfaction with the work done by Kosovo authorities preventing illegal migration, highlighting that short-term measures to prevent the population from migrating should be followed by socioeconomic measures. The amendment, on the other side, underlines the strong opposition to the decision of the Commission to recommend visa-free regime for Kosovo, and recalls that 40 per cent of Kosovo’s population is unemployed with 10 per cent out of 1.6 million inhabitants of Kosovo having moved abroad in 2014.
