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Pristina: Isolated? No problem, we will have visa-free travel next year. I mean the year after that. I mean … (Photo: cindy-dam)

Kosovo: Living in a ghetto on the EU fringe

When in 2008 Kosovo declared independence there were five words that every politician had to say.

“Integration into the European Union” was the refrain we heard almost every day from Kosovo’s leaders and from everyone else who visited Kosovo in the past eight years.

EU integration was the answer to all of Kosovo’s problems and anxieties. Have no jobs? No problem, we will join EU and there will be plenty. Have no functioning economy? No problem, the EU market will fix it.

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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

Pristina: Isolated? No problem, we will have visa-free travel next year. I mean the year after that. I mean … (Photo: cindy-dam)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

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