Kosovo faced harsher criteria for the lifting of EU visa requirements than all the other countries in the Western Balkans, a local think tank said.

Kosovo’s path towards visa-free travel in the Schengen zone has been markedly more difficult than that of other Western Balkan countries, said a report published on Monday by the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), a Kosovo think-tank.

“When comparing the roadmap presented to Kosovo with those of other countries in the Western Balkans, there are several important differences which may have made it more difficult for Kosovo to reach the requirements of the European Commission,” said the report.

The reasons, according to GLPS, are the “much higher benchmarks” than those imposed on other West Balkan states and the fact that the roadmap that Kosovo received is “open to amendments by the European Commission”.

“The benchmarks imposed on Kosovo are arguably stricter than those imposed in the roadmaps of other Western Balkan states,” said the report, claiming that the European Commission used the open nature of the Kosovo roadmap to introduce new conditions through recommendations.

The European Commission’s experience in the region might have led to it wanting to adjust the process along the way, in order to ensure better alignment with the requirements of the roadmap.

The negative consequences of this, according to the report, are that “Kosovo remains one of the most isolated countries in the world”.

The Deputy Minister of European Integration, Ramadan Ilazi, said that although the government expects a positive response to the report on the fulfilment of the Schengen criteria, “visa liberalisation will not solve all of Kosovo’s problems”.

The visa dialogue between Kosovo and the European Commission was launched in 2012. But Kosovo remains the only country in the Balkans whose citizens require a visa to travel in the EU’s Schengen zone.

Neighbouring Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia gained visa free travel in 2009, and Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2010.