During his stay in the Greek capital, the first deputy prime minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue, Besnik Bislimi, had an interview with the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini”.
Below, the complete article written by the newspaper:
The possibility for Greece to recognize Kosovo
Deputy The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi conveys the message that Greece should continue in the decisive step of recognizing Kosovo, taking advantage of the moment created by the agreement of last Monday in Brussels between Belgrade and Pristina on the European plan for the normalization of their relations.
Besnik Bislimi was in Athens yesterday for contacts with Greek officials, among them Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias. “We would like to strengthen our friendship with Athens and we have shown patience by contributing to this relationship even when recognition was not on the table. Now that Serbia has practically committed to recognizing Kosovo and is slowly realizing that it is the best for it too, Athens should take advantage of this momentum to take the decisive step and strengthen our joint efforts for the stabilization of the Western Balkans.” he said characteristically.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo also responds to the concerns expressed regarding the effects that the recognition of Kosovo by Greece may have in relation to the issue of Cyprus. The case of Kosovo has absolutely nothing to do with Cyprus, he emphasizes, and underlines that any equation of Cyprus compared to the case of Kosovo, damages the case of Cyprus, since its country has already been recognized by the majority of members of the United Nations.
“It is in the interest of Cyprus to do as much as possible to avoid these parallels”, he emphasizes. Regarding the European course of Kosovo, after the last application for membership in the European Union, Mr. Bislimi – who is also responsible for European integrations and developments – says that what he expects is that no country blocks Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, which Serbia itself has already agreed to. For his country, he says in fact that it is already a pioneer in the Western Balkans in terms of several international indicators related to democracy, the fight against corruption and freedom of the media.
Uniqueness
The special feature of Kosovo, of course, in relation to other countries applying for membership in the European Union, is the non-recognition of five of its 5 member states. Besnik Bislimi assesses that these countries now – as long as there is a strong commitment from Pristina to engage constructively in the dialogue process with Belgrade – “to review their position and further support us in terms of strengthening our institutions, but also the achievement of convergence for European criteria.”
After all, as he characteristically says in the terminology of the European Union, there is already the term of the 6 countries of the Western Balkans (WB6), which clearly says that he considers Kosovo to be a future member.
However, for this to happen, the Franco-German plan agreed in principle by Belgrade and Pristina last Monday to fully normalize their relations must continue, with the next round of talks already scheduled for March. .
Necessary condition
For Kosovo, a necessary condition is full normalization through mutual recognition, while for Serbia, a decisive condition is that Prishtina agrees to create an Association of municipalities, inhabited mainly by Serbs, which will give the Serbs a degree of autonomy.
There is already an appropriate framework agreed last Monday in Brussels and we will look to work on it. Kosovo will not avoid its responsibilities and will ensure that all minorities in Kosovo are safe, said Mr. Bislimi, however, did not specify how the implementation of this useful issue will be achieved.
By Aleksandra Voudouri
CATHYMERIN
Last modified: March 9, 2023