The new EU representative talks about Kosovo’s path toward eventual EU membership and stresses the province must work hard even after its future status has been determined.

Torbjorn Sohlstrom was appointed by EU foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana last December as his personal representative to Kosovo. Since 2001, the Swedish diplomat has been an EU adviser on policy toward the western Balkans at the Council of the European Union. He also served as head of cabinet of the EU special representative in Macedonia. In his new function, he will work closely with local leaders, institutions, and communities, and with the UN’s mission to Kosovo (UNMIK), with KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and with other international partners. He will also assist Stefan Lehne, the EU’s representative to the Kosovo status talks, which are currently underway in Vienna.

TOL: At what stage is Kosovo right now with regards to EU integration? Given that its future status is unresolved, what are the prospects?

Sohlstrom: There are two things we can say. The first is that the direction is completely clear. The heads of state and government of the EU have repeatedly declared that the future of the western Balkans is within the EU. And as Kosovo is in the western Balkans, this commitment applies also to Kosovo.

The second thing is that despite the obstacle of the unresolved status, we have tried to make sure that Kosovo already now is part of the process of integration with the EU. We have considerable European financial and technical assistance in Kosovo. We have since last year a Kosovo-specific “European partnership”: a list of key European reform priorities. We also have regular follow-up of progress made in the implementation of this European partnership, just like we have for all countries in this region. Essentially, we are trying to make sure that when Kosovo’s status will be determined and it can really join the course toward the EU, that it doesn’t start this course in the dressing room. We want Kosovo to be as well prepared as possible. For us it is clear that the settlement of Kosovo’s status must allow Kosovo to fully participate and to enjoy all the opportunities that this process can offer.

TOL: What are these reforms?

Sohlstrom: In this document that is called a European partnership, there is a long list of reforms that will help Kosovo to be a better place and help it to meet the demands of European integration. Many of these reforms are the same kind of reforms that we 10 years ago asked from the Czech Republic or Estonia and two years ago from Macedonia. ... Some of the reform priorities are very specific for Kosovo, because of its special history. The UN standards are fully integrated in this list of reforms.

TOL: Are these priority reforms primarily related to legislation?

Sohlstrom: You need several steps. First, you need to adopt laws and then to make sure that the administration carries out the laws. In some cases you need to work on the laws, in some other cases you may have the laws, but you need to make sure that those laws are implemented. What really counts is what happens in reality.

PLANNING FOR POST-STATUS ENGAGEMENT

TOL: On 20 February a team of 15 representatives of the EU Council Secretariat, the Commission, and the EU Presidency came to Kosovo on a fact-finding mission. What was the scope of their visit?
Sohlstrom: We are in the process of starting to plan for our future role, for the EU contribution to post-status Kosovo.

Some of it is already in place. The EU already exists in Kosovo. We discussed the European partnership and the regular progress reviews. We also discussed assistance. According to my calculation, the EU, through the Commission and its member states, has accorded 2.5 billion euros ($3 billion) in assistance to Kosovo since the conflict in 1999.

But we do think that the EU will have a more important role after a settlement of the status of Kosovo, and after a subsequent disengagement of UNMIK. We see this role in two main areas.

The first part is to make sure that we fully develop all the instruments that are part of our normal relationships with the western Balkans: the setting of reform priorities in European partnerships, the regular review of progress, and the various kinds of advanced technical assistance. Eventually there should also be a possibility to have a Stabilization and Association Agreement that establishes contractual relations between the EU and Kosovo.

The second part will be our support to Kosovo in meeting some very specific challenges that will come out of the status settlement. We think that there will probably be a need for some kind of civilian presence after the status settlement that will monitor and ensure the implementation of the status settlement. The EU is prepared to play an important role here, as this is Europe.

We think that an important part of this part of our engagement will be the area of rule of law: policing and the judiciary. This is the largest part of today’s UNMIK engagement and we think that it will be the largest part of a post-status international engagement. That is why we need to start planning already now. The fact-finding mission you referred to was here to see where we are today: what the Kosovo government is doing in this field, what UNMIK is doing, and what the other international actors are doing. We got some basic ideas, and on the basis of those ideas we will be able to continue our planning. The next step in this process will be the establishment of a planning team that will be based in Pristina and work with Kosovar authorities and with UNMIK in designing the international engagement in the rule-of-law area after [Kosovo’s final] status [has been determined].

Now, all of this is quite technical. To summarize, we think about a future when the EU is more deeply engaged in Kosovo and Kosovo more deeply engaged in the process of European integration.

TOL: Kosovo has big problems – high unemployment, a devastated economy. Are these obstacles for Kosovo to join the EU and also for you to work here?

Sohlstrom: Obviously, Kosovo has a chance to join the EU. As I said, there is a political commitment by the EU that Kosovo can become part of the EU once it fulfils the [required] conditions. And the conditions are quite clear; they are set down in the so-called Copenhagen criteria.

Kosovo today does not meet the Copenhagen criteria; far from it, in fact. There will be a need for a lot of hard work. But we have seen throughout the last decade that even if the process of European integration requires a lot of hard work, not a single country has regretted that it embarked on this process. Not only is it possible to reach the final destination and to join the EU, but it is also a very useful process to go through. Kosovo has a chance to join the EU, but it needs to work very hard.

TOL: Kosovo is not yet at a point where it can have contractual relations with EU. Is this also related to the status question?

Sohlstrom: For us it is clear that Kosovo after the status must have the ability of [having] contractual relations with the EU.

TOL: The EU has helped Kosovo considerably. Will this assistance continue in the future, especially with regards to the economy?

Sohlstrom: To help Kosovo is one of our key priorities. Kosovo is [in] our neighborhood. We will continue to support it in all the ways we can and to accompany Kosovo on this process toward EU integration. There will be a new assistance instrument. Thus far, it has been called “CARDS” [community assistance for reconstruction development, and stabilization]. In the future, from 2007, it will be called “IPA,” which means integrated preaccession instrument. It is a budget line that we are using for the Balkans and Turkey. These are countries that have the promise of membership once the conditions are fulfilled.

Source: Transitions Online