The Commissioner for Enlargement of the European Union, Marta Kos, during an official visit to Pristina, declared that there can be no security in Europe without Kosovo. She added that one of her priorities is to take care of a “much stronger” integration of the country in the EU.
In a joint media conference with the acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, Commissioner Kos said that the enlargement process has real prospects for the admission of new states in the coming years.
“You are today at a critical moment. First, you are before the elections. The second is that, when we talked today about the enlargement process from a broader perspective, what we are experiencing today in the enlargement process is progress and, for the first time after the last enlargement in 2013 with Croatia, there are real prospects that in the coming years we will have new member states. This accession process has been pushed forward also because of the security aspect. And when we discussed about Kosovo’s role in this, there can be no security in Europe without Kosovo, the reason why expansion today is much more than just expansion. It has to do with security in Europe, with being together, with the regional cooperation that you mentioned, and of course also through integration in the European Union,” she said.
For his part, Prime Minister Kurti requested the advancement of Kosovo’s application for the status of a candidate country in the EU. He emphasized that the country is closely related to the foreign policy of the European Union and that public support for membership is around 90%.
“It has been more than 40 months since we applied and the moment of renewing the enlargement process should result in the well-deserved advancement of Kosovo. Joining the EU in decision-making for Kosovo is a joint task. The vacuum left by the EU is being filled by other malicious actors who endanger our common security”, said Kurti.
