Experts: The ban on imports from Serbia may have consequences for Kosovo

2024-09-20 22:17:15, Kosova & Bota CNA

German diplomats committed to the Balkans and experts on European integration and economic issues are calling on the government of Kosovo to lift the ban on imports of goods from Serbia, amid concerns that the refusal could leave Kosovo out of important processes such as the Process of Berlin.

The government of Kosovo stopped the import of goods from Serbia in June 2023, as a security measure after the situation created by the arrest of three members of the Kosovo police by Serbian forces, who were then released under Western pressure.

During a visit to Kosovo at the end of last month, the German envoy for the Western Balkans, Manuel Sarrazin, asked the government to lift the ban, stressing that it is against the principles of the Central European Free Trade Agreement, known as CEFTA, where Kosovo is also a part, along with five other countries of the Western Balkans and Moldova.

In return, the German diplomat has offered that Kosovo be represented in CEFTA under its own name - with a footnote and not through the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), as it is currently.

After the visit, the German ambassador to Kosovo, Jorn Rhode, in a post on social networks said that "if necessary, other Balkan countries will continue without Kosovo with regional cooperation and the Berlin Process".

The executive director of the Balkan Group for policy drafting, Naim Rashiti, in a conversation with the Voice of America, says that these requests are being made to Kosovo on the eve of the next meeting within the Berlin Process.

"All these agendas that are being developed like the Regional Common Market II, not that they have had great successes and not that they have advanced much regional cooperation, but still new agendas are being built on them and Kosovo must catch them. Of course, Kosovo has many problems with CEFTA and we as an organization oppose that Kosovo is still called as UNMIK in these agendas and everything must be done to remove it, but at the same time Kosovo must preserve the values ??it has, to be open and be a territory of free trade, democratic institutional cooperation with the West because that's the only way it survives", says Mr. Rashiti.

He expresses his conviction that Kosovo will not be excluded from regional initiatives, but will lose its influence on them.

"I do not believe that it will happen because it is difficult to imagine that the leaders of the countries will sit down in the German Chancellery and sign an agreement without the presence of everyone, I am convinced that in the end both Germany and Kosovo will make more efforts, but last minute negotiations are very risky. These negotiations should have been developed in a much more transparent, comprehensive, more careful and active manner, both sides, but in particular we are talking about Kosovo because there may be unknowns, or other agendas or other annexes of the countries. others, as Serbia usually does. So then Berlin will not leave Serbia out, so Kosovo must proactively precede the construction of the agenda, shape it well, communicate correctly with the leader of this process but also with other countries", says Mr. Rashiti.

Skender Krasniqi, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kosovo, says that the government of Kosovo should take advantage of this situation so that, in addition to lifting the ban on goods from Serbia, it completely renegotiates its CEFTA agreement, which was signed by UNMIK on behalf of Kosovo in 2006.

"Because Kosovo is the only country that has signed the CEFTA agreement without protecting any product, which has influenced the increase of thousands of percent in the import from these countries and maybe tens less in relation to the export of our products to CEFTA countries. This has been the constant mistake of this and all governments in Kosovo, which has never started the renegotiation of the CEFTA agreement and the beginning of the protection of the products we have that are competitive in the market", he says.

In the response that the government of Kosovo sent to the Voice of America, it is stated that "Kosovo supports regional cooperation and the deepening of economic integration through the Berlin Process, based on the principle of equality, reciprocity, values ??and rules of the European Union".

"In yesterday's meeting with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Kurti expressed the commitment of the Government of Kosovo to new agreements within this process, and at the same time emphasized the importance of the full implementation of the four mobility agreements signed in Berlin and Tirana", says the government's response, adding that "it is working to unblock CEFTA as an important mechanism in the implementation of the Common Regional Market, in order to ensure direct representation and equality between the parties".

The Berlin Process, which this year marks the tenth anniversary of its establishment, is an initiative launched in 2014 by the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with the aim of deepening the coordination between the countries of the Western Balkans as well as supporting the membership process of this region in the Union. European.

The next meeting is expected to be held on October 14, and German diplomat Sarrazin has requested that by then concrete actions be taken to help the progress of countries in the region that aspire to European integration, stressing that "for this, compromise is needed and sometimes even willingness to make concessions on the reconciliation about political agreements that are not easy for Serbia nor for Kosovo".

Mr. Rashiti says that the Berlin Process has remained the only important European agenda for the Western Balkans, which includes all the countries of the region and treats them equally. Consequently, he says, Kosovo's insistence on reciprocity is politically legitimate, but in the long term it is not the right approach.

"The current measures are measures that coincide with two priorities of the government, if you remember that the government, when it came to power, proclaimed reciprocity and this is the basis of the political position, and the second is about security after Banjska. That all is understood, but at the same time, it is necessary to fight first for lobbying and advancement of these regional agendas for a mobilization of partners to fight Serbia, so you remove the measures but do not give up your demands and then you can create agendas others that require the establishment of reciprocity or the resolution of bilateral issues within the framework of other mechanisms or the establishment of new mechanisms", he says.

Mr. Rashiti emphasizes that Kosovo's clashes with its allies risk making it a vulnerable country in the future.

"In Kosovo, it should be understood that Kosovo needs Western allies, not Germany, not France and not the United States. Kosovo needs to be in uniform lines with these international integration agendas in order to benefit, otherwise Kosovo will become a vulnerable country, if we don't see it today we will see it next year, or the year after. All these processes of extending sovereignty, reciprocity, regional cooperation, increasing Kosovo's presence and membership in international organizations will be better achieved in cooperation with international allies. It is not perfect, these countries have different agendas, they often have contradictory agendas, as we have seen, they favor Serbia in certain stages, however, the primary goal of Kosovo is the consolidation of citizenship inside and outside, which we will not be able to achieve without the international factor. this can be understood today or after ten years or fifteen years, there is no other choice", he says.

This year's report of the US Department of State on the climate of doing business in Kosovo and the Progress Report for Kosovo of 2023 criticize the ban on the import of Serbian goods, assessing that it is contrary to the spirit of the Stabilization-Association Agreement, and that it has "caused great confusion to importers and has negatively affected companies owned by foreign entities in Kosovo, due to the interruption in the supply chain"./ VOA