Kosovo’s chief negotiator and ambassador to the European Union, Agron Bajrami, has called on the EU to grant Kosovo candidate country status, arguing that the country’s European integration process should move forward independently of Serbia.
In an interview with Euractiv, Bajrami said Kosovo has fulfilled more criteria than many countries had achieved when they were granted EU candidate status.
“Kosovo has made more progress than any other country had at the moment it received candidate status,” Bajrami said.
He stressed that Kosovo’s path toward EU membership should not be held hostage by developments in Serbia or the normalization dialogue, insisting that the country’s progress deserves to be evaluated on its own merits.
Despite the political challenges, Bajrami expressed confidence that Kosovo’s eventual accession to the European Union is inevitable.
“There are three things you cannot escape in life: death, taxes, and Kosovo’s membership in the European Union,” he said.
His remarks come amid continued debate over the pace of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans and Kosovo’s efforts to secure formal candidate status.
Earlier this week, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama offered a lighter take on the unpredictability of European integration, saying that “God, sex and the European Union are unpredictable.”
Bajrami’s comments reinforce Kosovo’s longstanding position that its European integration should advance based on its own reforms and achievements rather than be conditioned by Serbia’s progress or the state of the EU-facilitated normalization dialogue.
