European integration minister Vlora Citaku said that next month’s local elections will be “crucial” for Kosovo’s ambitions to move closer to EU membership.
“We will be analysed with a magnifying glass. They [the EU] won’t want to have a mediocre electoral process, they will want to see an exemplary process,” Citaku told lawmakers from the parliamentary commission on EU integration on Monday.
For the first time, the EU is going to deploy over 100 observers for the local elections which will be held in the northern Serb-run area as well as the rest of Kosovo.
The polls come ahead of the start of talks about a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA between the EU and Kosovo.
Citaku stressed that it was “very important to maintain the pace of the European integration process even if the electoral campaign is ongoing”.
In August, Kosovo established a top-level team which will negotiate the SAA, a document which sees the would-be EU member reforming its legislation in an attempt to meet Brussels’ standards.
Kosovo’s negotiations will be led by Citaku, with six other ministers (foreign affairs, justice, finance, trade, agriculture and economic development) also part of the team.
Gezim Kasapolli, deputy minister of European integration, will deal with legislation and cooperation issues with the EU, while Bernard Nikaj, deputy minister for trade and industry, is mandated to negotiate trade issues with Brussels.
Citaku announced that “the first meeting [with EU officials] will be held in the second part of October, the second meeting is expected to be held in the second part of November, the third in February, while the fourth meeting is planned to take place in April or May”.
Pristina plans to end negotiations for the SAA in the spring of 2014, but EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule has already warned the Kosovo authorities that the process will involve raising “difficult” issues. Birn