• Login
  • Search:

Wed, Jun 19 2013

EU starts feasibility study into Kosovo joining the bloc

Wed, Mar 28 2012 08:33 CET

byVOANews

2482 Views
EU starts feasibility study into Kosovo joining the bloc

Photo: Reuters

The European Union has officially launched a feasibility study on Kosovo's conditions to sign a key agreement for closer ties with the 27-nation bloc.
 
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele met with top leaders in Pristina Tuesday. He told reporters after the talks that the EU will assess Kosovo's readiness to sign the stabilization and association agreement.
 
That agreement is the first step in a long and arduous process of reforms and development a country needs to implement before joining the EU.
 
A VOA correspondent in Pristina quotes Fuele as saying that Kosovo must focus on issues of special importance in the study, such as trade, public, administration reform, electoral reform, rule of law and minority integration.
 
Kosovo's President Atifete Jahjaga said Kosovo and its people are a part of the European civilization and that all of its political and ethnic groups support a path toward membership in the EU and NATO.
 
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci pledged to fulfill all the criteria necessary for inclusion in the EU entry process. He said "if the first decade of this century can be considered as a period of establishing the state of Kosovo, this decade is the decade of Europeanization and integration of Kosovo into Euro-Atlantic structures."
 
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia four years ago, and five EU members have yet to recognize it as a sovereign state.
 
Source: VOANews.com

  • Print
  • Send via email
  • Translate to
  • Share:

To post comments, please, Login or Register.


Please read the The Sofia Echo forum comments policy.

MEPs welcome progress of Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro towards joining the EU

The European Parliament says the EU should start accession talks with Serbia as soon as possible, welcomes plans to start them with Montenegro in June and calls on the five EU member states that have yet to recognise Kosovo's independence to do so, in three resolutions adopted on March 29.

Serbia to hold parliamentary elections on May 6

Boris Tadic's ruling Democratic Party will face a strong challenge for the 250-seat national assembly from the nationalist Serbian Progressive Party, headed by opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic.

Serbia’s leap year?

The path to EU candidate status – to say nothing of actual membership – is never without its complications.

Kosovo at four

Challenges remain for Priština, four years after Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Belgrade and Priština resume dialogue

Progress in the dialogue was seen as a crucial factor in any decision at an EU summit on Serbia’s aspirations to EU candidate member status.

European Commission launches dialogue with Kosovo on visa free travel

However, government of Kosovo has to implement a series of reforms to meet the criteria.

More in this category

Czech Republic, Romania mull shale gas moratoriums

Governments in Prague and Bucharest could soon join Sofia in instituting temporary moratoriums on shale gas exploration.

Serbia: Tadić leads as presidential elections head for second round

Coalition around ruling Democratic Party has largest share of vote in Serbia's parliamentary election, according to exit polls.

Greek voters punish major centre-right, socialist parties at polls

Centre-right New Democracy is said by exit polls to have largest share of votes, but diminished even from its 2009 defeat, while socialists Pasok – the 2009 victors – gets somewhere around 14 to 17 per cent.

Deal on OSCE role in Serbian elections welcomed

An agreement reached with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will allow voters with dual citizenship in Kosovo to vote in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Serbia.

Macedonia arrests 20 suspected terrorists

Twenty radical Muslims suspected of being members of a terrorist group that has been linked to the murder of five fishermen in early April.

© 2000-2013, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.

Web Design by RIZN

Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site. Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments. The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes, and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.