EU top officials in Kosovo to celebrate visa-free regime

PRISTINA, Kosovo – Senior European Union officials have urged Kosovo’s politicians to leave aside disagreements and work together on their difficult path toward joining the bloc.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday met in Pristina with top officials and politicians “to share the celebrations” after the European Commission recommended a visa-free regime a day earlier, expected to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council within weeks.

Before that Kosovo must “have ratified the border/boundary agreement with Montenegro and strengthened its track record in the fight against organized crime and corruption.”

Wednesday’s proposal, on the same day as the Commission recommended visa-free travel for Turkey’s citizens, joins Kosovo with other Balkan countries that have enjoyed the privilege for some years now.

They also urged dialogue as for months Kosovo’s opposition has disrupted the Parliament to protest a deal with Serbia that gives more powers to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and another on a border demarcation pact with Montenegro.

“Unity and diversity are EU’s motto and very easily they could be Kosovo’s too,” Mogherini told the Kosovo parliament, filled with the opposition lawmakers who have been boycotting it for about two months.

Mogherini, who is mediating Pristina-Belgrade talks to try to overcome their differences, said that the ethnic Serb minority’s association in Kosovo “will not be a parallel governing … and does not put in question Kosovo’s territorial integrity.”

The U.S. and its NATO allies carried out a bombing campaign in 1999 to force Serbian forces out of Kosovo and get Belgrade to accept the deployment of a NATO peacekeeping force.

In 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, recognized by 111 countries though not by Belgrade. Five EU member countries that do not recognize it have not blocked its integration steps.

Last year Kosovo has signed a stabilization and association agreement with the EU that is expected to promote economic growth in one of Europe’s poorest countries.

The EU has been Kosovo’s main supporter in development aid and its countries are Kosovo’s main trading partner.

Kosovo took another step into the European fold this week when it became a member of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations.

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Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania contributed to this report.