On Thursday, April 11, 2013, the Forum 2015, an operational project of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, raised a new question regarding the current and future relations between Kosovo and the European Union. Established in 2003, Forum 2015 continuously strives to elevate important topics of Euro-Atlantic integration, to a higher level while presenting options for constructive and positive advancement of policy process in Kosovo. Though promised in 2003, the Kosovo’s European perspective is continuously being questioned on its true potential. The non-recognition of Kosovo’s statehood by five of the EU members halts any advancement of the current dialogue into a true contractual relation between the youngest European country and the EU itself. In the interim, Kosovo is being presented by various homework that do not necessarily help clarification of its European prospects. Hence, Forum 2015 presented today an analysis that reviews retrospectively the nature of this relationship. The analysis, titled Kosovo – EU Relations: The History of Unfulfilled Aspirations?, looks into the “reasons and lost opportunities causing Kosovo to lag behind in achieving its European aspirations,” focusing on “the Stabilization-Association process, contractual relations between Kosovo and the EU and the perspective of full membership in European Union.”
Clearly, instead of building new momentum that would inspire and ‘fast-forward’ the pro-European reformation, the uncertainty of what relation will Kosovo have with the EU generates stagnation, the contrary of what everyone either in Kosovar society or Brussels would want to see. One may want to question why this happens?
Well, from the Kosovar perspective, EU has not been committed enough to ensure the fulfillment of this perspective in Kosovo. Since the first interactions in 2002, with the launch of the Tracking Mechanism of the Stabilization and Association Process, the EU’s greatest advancement in this relation has been to turn the process into a Stabilization and Association Process Dialogue (SAPD). The current dialogue has not been applied ever before, as all Western Balkans states have been offered the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), as part of inclusion into the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP). Signed between the EU and the potential candidate country, the agreement establishes contractual relations between the two, opens access to community programs and the latter is categorized as a potential candidate country. The aim of the SAP is preparing the potential candidate country for the candidate status, and successively, the multi-year and painstaking accession negotiations follow. The current SAP Dialogue does not provide guarantee that Kosovo’s successful performance will advance its status to a candidate country.
On the other hand, the EU continuously conveys critical messages on weak and insufficient performance of Kosovar government within the SAPD. While the critiques are very necessary, this current relation fails to benefit from the true conditionality that generates improved performance by the governments of adhering countries. The true conditionality of the EU fosters genuine transformation of a country as after each of its stages, the EU rewards the good performance with advancement a step closer to the full membership. That road to full memberships initiates with contractual agreement signed between the EU and the adhering country, that is, the SAA. While faced with EU homework in the form of European Partnership since 2006, the Kosovar government has never been sent clear and specific messages on what reward it would be awarded after good performance. If counted since the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, in ten years since, Kosovo has not embarked yet on the regular enlargement track, as its Western Balkans neighbors.
The non-recognition by its five [i]members has truly posed obstacles, but generation of creative ad hoc solutions I am afraid will not succeed to generate the results we all anticipate. When talking to the European officials, I am always reminded that the European integration process is not about becoming an EU member state as much as it is about improving the lives of the very citizens in the adhering country. While I cannot agree more, unfortunately, the experiences of the past have proven that the most tangible benchmark of improved performance is the very barometer available in the European enlargement process. Those are the mechanisms that each ruling political class strives to present its own citizens as a proof of great performance, securing this way the votes for the next mandate.
It was for Kosovo’s nebulous European perspective, that the Forum 2015 conducted the retrospective analysis of the relations between Kosovo and the EU. The analysis shows clearly that the EU may lose momentum in future should this current unclear approach towards Kosovo be maintained in the future as well. The lack of cohesion among its members on Kosovo’s statehood will weaken the power of the EU’s positive conditionality due to lack of clear rewards after fulfillment of the already listed homework. The government structures will decreasingly be less willing to invest their energy on policy reformation with no clear rewards and engage for visible infrastructure projects that will reward them with votes in the next elections. With current, though slow, advancements of other countries in the Western Balkans, the EU risks creating a black hole in its backyard. Ultimately, the analysis concludes that “Without a change of attitude from both sides (the EU and the Government of Kosovo) realization of Kosovo’s aspirations for a European future will remain only pretty political rhetoric.
Hence, the EU should rethink carefully what approach should best be applied in the case of Kosovo and allow that approach to be lead by Enlargement policies rather than those of the European External Service Action. I strongly believe that being in its very backyard, Kosovo belongs to the former rather than the latter package of policies. The last Feasibility Study of the European Commission opens way for establishing contractual relations by proving that “There is no legal obstacle for the Union to conclude on that basis an association agreement with Kosovo.” Once Kosovo signs a Stabilization and Association Agreement, it will be more willing to advance its engagement on all aspects of the europeanization, including the regional cooperation and good neighborly relations, what the focus of the EU for the time being seems to have been.[ii]
On the other hand, the EU should be reminded that should the state-building process not succeed in its backyard, in a country of 2 million people with a perspective of EU membership, I am afraid that the state-building missions in other parts of the world will be even more difficult goals to accomplish.
