Prishtina, 21 July 2022
“Kosovo has great expectations from the Czech Presidency, we welcome the opening of negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia and we believe that it was the right move for the European perspective of the region. We call on the Czech Presidency to continue the positive momentum with the decision delayed for already more than four years now on the visa liberalization”. This is what the First Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue, Besnik Bislimi, said during his speech at the roundtable organized by the European Investors Council, on the topic “Czech Presidency of the EU 2022 and the Western Balkans”.
3 days ago it was 4 years since the EC confirmed that 95 benchmarks for visa liberalization have been met. Until the last year, Kosovo continued to be committed to the reforms of the rule of law, the fight against corruption, organized crime and migration.
Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi said that the fight against corruption has completely changed the image of Kosovo, not only in the region, but also beyond. The rise by 17 places in “Transparency International”, and recently the European Parliament Report has welcomed the intensification of efforts to fight corruption and organized crime. Also, on the rule of law, we have been declared first in the region by the World Justice Index. In the field of migration, Kosovo has built the institutional capacities and legislative framework necessary for migration management. Also, we have signed 26 Readmission Agreements with 22 EU Member States. All these have made Kosovo have the smallest number of asylum seekers in the region, after Montenegro.
The roundtable also discussed the application for membership in the European Union. Regarding this, Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi said that next year it will be 20 years since the Thessaloniki Summit and Kosovo remains the only country in the Western Balkans that has not yet applied for membership. The European perspective must be translated into the perspective for full membership in the EU, and our application is an attempt to concretize the latter, for which we have the support of over 90% of the population and broad consensus of political parties.
The Head of the European Union Office in Kosovo/Special Representative of the European Union, Mr Tomáš Szunyog, and the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Kosovo, Pavel Bilek, were also present at this roundtable.
Last modified: July 22, 2022