EU standards should be the same for Kosovo and Serbia! (Koha Ditore)
KTV’s editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi in his opinion piece argues that Kosovo and Serbia are part of Europe and that European standards should be applied to solve problems between Kosovo and Serbia. "Albanians through dialogue wish to round up the process of independence and sovereignty and to be equal with the other countries of the world in this regard. Serbs know that they cannot stop this, but at the same time require much more autonomy and rights for members of their community in Kosovo. While the international community wants that through "normalization of relations" to keep both parties engaged in the dialogue. However, Albanians fear that making major concessions to the Serbs in order for the latter to recognize Kosovo, especially in the case of competences of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, even in the case of recognizing Kosovo, this Association may be a factor of instability orchestrated by Belgrade. On the other hand, Serbs fear that if the process of dialogue ends without them gaining some sort of autonomy within Kosovo, Albanians would try to make Serbs leave Kosovo. These are the main issues that Pristina and Belgrade should address. It would not be logical how in Kosovo which meets the EU standards on minority communities, Serbs would have more rights than the Albanians in Serbia, which also meets the EU standards for minority communities. EU standards would have to be the same for all. In Europe there can be no state in the process of EU membership that does not recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another state, also in the process of EU membership," Kelmendi concludes.