Friday

29th Mar 2024

Analysis

What does EU want for Kosovo visa-free travel?

  • Kosovo is the only place in the Western Balkans whose people need visas to enter the EU (Photo: cindy-dam)

Kosovo has been dangled a potential breakthrough on visa-free travel, but what does the EU really want in return?

The ray of light, after years of waiting, came in Pristina on 22 April when German foreign minister Heiko Maas publicly said Kosovo "has fulfilled all criteria for visa liberalisation and it should be granted".

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Maas said the same behind closed doors to EU foreign ministers in Brussels on 10 May, diplomatic sources told EUobserver.

The European Commission and EU foreign service have been saying it since 2018.

And Germany had been the biggest opponent of an EU deal, with only Denmark, France, and the Netherlands now standing in the way.

The hopes of 1.8 million people, especially Kosovo's young people, half of whom have no jobs, are hanging on what happens next.

They are the last part of the Western Balkans still behind a visa wall.

Broader faith in EU promises is also up in the air, after Bulgaria recently vetoed North Macedonia accession talks even though Skopje had met all EU demands.

And moving countries onto the EU's visa-waiver list is done by majority not unanimity.

So if the EU really wanted to press ahead, then the commission could table a vote, and Germany and others could bulldoze through the decision despite the Danish, Dutch, and French objections.

But internal EU politics makes that unlikely, sending a confusing message on due-process.

The German foreign ministry might want to go ahead, but Berlin is more divided at home than it appears abroad and its conservative interior minister, Horst Seehofer, "doesn't want to allow it [Kosovo visa-free travel] at the moment," an EU diplomat said.

Meanwhile, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands are saying Kosovo needs further reforms, which could be handled by reopening visa-free negotiations between the European Commission and Pristina.

"Our view is Kosovo hasn't met all the milestones yet," one of their diplomats said.

"This is purely based on lack of reform," he said.

"[Re-opening] visa-liberalisation talks is back on the agenda ... they could restart already in June," he added.

But opening the doors to Kosovo, a Muslim-majority society, is also bad political timing for French president Emmanuel Macron, who is preparing to fend off a challenge by the French far right in next May's elections.

And for some EU officials, the three refuseniks are doing it for more cynical reasons than technical "milestones".

"The member states who are blocking it are doing it for national reasons," an EU official told EUobserver.

If Berlin, Copenhagen, The Hague, and Paris are waiting for political timing to improve, that still leaves the question of what EU institutions are angling for.

EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell and EU enlargement commissioner Olivér Várhelyi are also pushing to resume a dialogue on normalising Kosovo-Serbia relations.

This might involve painful Kosovo concessions, such as devolving powers to an ethnic-Serb entity called the Association of Serb Municipalities.

And for some diplomats, it suited Borrell and Várhelyi for the EU to dangle the carrot of a visa-free deal, but to deliver it only after Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti complies.

"There are people in Brussels that want to link those two [visa-free travel with the Serbia dialogue]," an EU diplomat said.

"This is something brought up ... in circles around the EEAS [Borrell's EU foreign service]," he said.

An EU official denied that there was any quid pro quo on visas and Serbia talks.

"Visa liberalisation has nothing to do with the [Serbia] dialogue," he told EUobserver.

"Visa liberalisation is purely in the hands of few member states, so I do not really see how the 'EEAS and EC can offer a deal' on this," he said.

But turning to Kurti, the EU official added: "With the [Serbia] dialogue he is not doing a favour to us, he is helping to move Kosovo on the EU path, or block it if he continues to put obstacles on that way."

Spain to recognise Kosovo if it gets Serbia deal

Spain would be prepared to recognise Kosovo if it clinched a deal with Serbia, Madrid has said, in the first positive signal of its kind since EU-brokered talks resumed.

Interview

EU visa waiver unlikely to import Ukraine crime

Visa-free travel, which began last week, unlikely to prompt a Ukrainian crime wave, an EU police expert has said, but Ukraine itself is seeing increases in lawlessness.

Exclusive

Germany leads objections to Balkan/Eastern visa-free travel

Unlawful residency and unfounded asylum claims from some western Balkan states, plus Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, is triggering discussions on suspending visa-free travel to the EU - led by Germany, France and Italy.

Kosovars grow weary of EU's privatised visa regime

Most EU countries have outsourced visa-application processing for Kosovars to private companies. The results are long queues, expensive fees, loss of clarity over where personal data ends up — and often not even a visa.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us