Isolation Confirmed. How the EU is undermining its interests in Kosovo

This report highlights the discriminatory treatment of Kosovars – whether they are Kosovo Albanians, Kosovo Serbs, Kosovo Roma, Kosovo Bosniaks, or Kosovo Ashkali and Egyptians – by the European Union in the context of the EU's visa policy.

The first step in this treatment was the specific solution the EU insisted on for Kosovars holding Serbian passports (as they are allowed to do under the provisions of the Ahtisaari Plan and the Kosovo constitution): Kosovo residents, regardless of their ethnicity, can only receive a Serbian passport from a special directorate of the Serbian Interior Ministry. But passports issued by this directorate are excluded from visa-free travel to the Schengen area. The second step was withholding until today a normal visa roadmap from Kosovo, as it has been given to all other countries. The recent declaration that Kosovo is not ready yet even to have the very basic first step, what the EU calls a "visa dialogue", because, in the words of Commissioner Malmstrom, it "is not ready" was a huge disappointment for pro-European forces in Pristina. It makes little sense for the EU to have a "visa dialogue" with Russia, Ukraine and Moldova but not also with this small Balkan state.

This discriminatory treatment is not only a problem for citizens of Kosovo but also undermines the interests of the European Union. It undermines the EU's efforts to promote much needed institution building in Pristina. It weakens the position of pro-European reformers in Kosovo. It makes it less likely that the most ambitious rule of law missions in the EU's history, EULEX, will be as successful as it could be. It makes it more difficult to create the conditions in Kosovo which would allow EU member states to repatriate thousands of illegal Kosovo residents without meeting loud criticism from international organisations and NGOs. Current EU policy preserves rather than changes a problematic status quo in which Kosovars are the fifth largest group of nationals requesting asylum across the EU today, despite the existing visa requirement. It also undermines the EU's leverage when it comes to moderating in the upcoming dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

Decision-makers in EU member states and in EU institutions are obviously justified not only to ask tough questions about Kosovo's institutions but also to demand far-reaching reforms before any visa liberalisation can be granted. This is the basic rationale behind the roadmap process: to demand tough reforms in return for access to the EU. Visa liberalisation must also be in the EU's own security interest. This is the reason so many current and former foreign and interior ministers throughout Europe – as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament – have come out so strongly in favour of the roadmap process for the Balkans.

The Commission has neither opened a visa dialogue with Kosovo, nor has it presented a roadmap or any document listing what Kosovo needs to do to be granted visa-free travel. Kosovars still have to go through a cumbersome, stressful and often expensive visa application procedure to visit any EU country – and there is no clear prospect that this will change any time soon. There is no reason, however, that the same logic which applies to Macedonians, Montenegrins and Serbians should not apply to Kosovars.

This paper explores what has happened in 2010 in detail. It argues that the EU has demanded things from Kosovo to be allowed to start a visa liberalisation process than it had not demanded from all other Western Balkan countries. Importantly, our analysis shows that in fact Kosovo has met even those additional demands. Nevertheless, it is still kept out in the cold.