Kosovo FM: Passing Montenegro border deal “impossible” now

PODGORICA, Montenegro – Kosovo’s new foreign minister says the ratification in parliament of a key border agreement with neighbouring Montenegro is “impossible at the moment” despite international calls for its passage.

Minister Behgjet Pacolli said Tuesday in Montenegro that “we have difficulties … the composition of our parliament is quite complicated and the ratification is impossible at the moment.”

The agreement was signed in 2015 but has not enjoyed sufficient parliamentary support since. Brussels has set the border deal as a condition for adding Kosovo to the list of western Balkan nations whose citizens don’t need visas to enter the European Union’s Schengen travel zone.

Montenegro has recognized Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, but Serbia has not. Most nations that emerged from the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s have unresolved border issues.