The paper’s Brussels-based correspondent, Augustin Palokaj, in an opinion piece today writes that the European Commission “looks ridiculous” when trying to justify why they have put the ratification of border demarcation agreement with Montenegro as a condition to Kosovo obtaining visa liberalisation. “In the European Commission’s documents, we can find many evidence that Kosovo is being drastically discriminated. In the cases of Progress Reports of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was concluded that the issue of border demarcation remains open or that there is no progress in the issue of border demarcation,” Palokaj notes. Furthermore, according to the author, “one cannot avoid the impression that this condition was imposed in order to support the ruling-coalition in Kosovo to justify the ratification of a not-popular agreement with visa liberalisation, with the belief that this is only a technical issue and the coalition has no problem to secure the necessary votes.”
Palokaj also writes that the support for Kosovo is decreasing so even if Kosovo manages to ratify the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro, this does not guarantee visa-free travel for the citizens of Kosovo. “In Brussels, they see it as concerning the behavior of Kosovo authorities regarding Drenica case,” Palokaj writes. “We do not know if the Kosovo government representatives are sincere when they mention this case as proof of functioning rule of law, or when in Kosovo they criticize the decisions in this process,” Palokaj writes quoting EU diplomats.