Date: 2017-06-13
Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, colleagues, let me say first of all there has been some progress in Kosovo over the last year on issues that concern the relationship between the European Union and Kosovo. A stabilisation and association agreement finally has come into force, and that has included the European reform agenda and something we voted recently in the plenary: the participation of Kosovo in EU programmes. So various things were re-signalled and that is supported by this report strongly signalled to Kosovo, and to Kosovo citizens: your future is in the European Union. Nevertheless, we also have to see that, over the last year, things have not progressed as much as Kosovo citizens and also as we here in the European Parliament would have liked them to go. The extreme polarisation of the political landscape , but also no progress here in the European Union. We still and I have been rapporteur for Kosovo since 2009 do not have progress with five EU Member States recognising the independence of the Republic of Kosovo. This is harming progress also. This does not give Kosovo citizens the idea that we really want them and that they are part of Europe they should be part of the European Union. So this report also regrets that still five Members are not recognising Kosovo, and you know, to those of you who come from those five Member States, sometimes I wonder, when you then criticise corruption organised crime in Kosovo, yes, which exists, like in other parts of the region and also inside the EU then why do you not want to allow Kosovo to become part of Europol and Interpol? Because that would help. So there is a contradiction in the position of those five Member States, and I hope we will see progress in the next year. But let me come to some other points. In the normalisation process between Kosovo and Serbia we also have had mostly stalemates. We have had one progress: Kosovo now has a telephone code of its own and not any more the Monaco one or the Slovenian one. It can be still be used, but there is this independent international telephone code. But nevertheless, so many things have been agreed between the two governments of Kosovo and Serbia, but implementation is still lacking on both sides. Also from Serbia we have had signs that were simply not helpful. The Serbian nationalist train from Belgrade to northern Kosovo with signs on it: 'Kosovo is Serbia'. This simply is not the reality any more, and people in Serbia know that and the Serbian Government knows it. It simply does not help to develop good neighbourly relationships if things like that are supported. And as I said, what is lacking really is implementation. In Kosovo itself, still administration of justice remain slow and inefficient. Lack of progress has been made in regard to the protection of freedom of expression and media freedom, and several other issues. When I talk about gender-based violence, still women's full rights need to be enjoyed, although there has been some progress as well. Now let me come to the elections on that weekend. Yes, finally, and it is good that these elections were passed peacefully. There have not been any disruptions. But we still have problems there. There are still voting lists that were not been totally accurate; the electoral system still not functioning well sometimes and financing of political parties were problems. So I think it would be very important also because we have had intimidation against Kosovo Serbs who would not want to vote for the Socijalistička. There I would like to end with asking, as it is said in the report as well, that the leaders of the Kosovo Serb community should take full ownership of them being part of Kosovo and not always referring to Belgrade.