The President of Albania, Ilir Meta, told Klan Kosova that it is important to finally clarify Serbia’s orientation, towards the European Union or Russia. “It appears that Serbia’s orientation is towards EU,” he said. “There is an effort and an insistence to move towards EU and this means a European approach towards neighbors and Kosovo,” Meta said.

He said he does not expect Serbia to recognize Kosovo prior to Greece, Romania and other EU countries that have not recognized it yet. “Serbia’s normalisation of relations with Kosovo leads towards this recognition,” he added. “Normalisation leads towards resolution of concrete problems. For instance for the citizens of Medvedje, normalization of relations would have been very positive. Normalisation of relations would mean breathing for Albanians in the Valley,” Meta considered. He stressed there should be a  better coordination of internal positions.  “I do not consider that it is an insurmountable obstacle, it will require its own time. I should stress the internal progress. Progress of coexistence with Serbs in Kosovo but it depends a lot on the progress of the dialogue with Serbia, that would have an impact on the five EU countries to recognize Kosovo in the future,” he said.

Asked about national unification of Albanians, Meta said that there are two ways to reach this: “We either united in Europe, or we take another road which leads to conflict with everyone else and which is not only unknown but not at all promising.”

“We lack that political cohesion,” he said further.

Meta said that after his meetings with EU Commissioner Hahn and other EU officials, he is convinced that liberalization of visas for Kosovo will happen. “I have received guarantees by Commissioner Hahn that liberalization will happen “as soon as demarcation issue is resolved.”