Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in his speech at the EU Summit plenary session The Berlin Process III has asked the European Union to make a decision on Kosovo’s application for membership, granting the country candidate status and opening negotiations for membership.

Kurti, at the summit held in Montenegro, has stressed that Kosovo continues to remain the only country in the Western Balkans without EU membership candidate status.

Kosovo’s application has been waiting, since December 2022, for a decision that belongs exclusively to the EU. Until then, we remain the only state in the Western Balkans without candidate status, Kurti has declared.

He has called on European representatives to take the necessary steps to advance Kosovo on the road towards European integration.

We ask you to make the decision: seek the Commission’s opinion, grant Kosovo candidate status and open membership negotiations, Kurti has said.

During the speech, Kurti has stressed that Kosovo has fulfilled its responsibilities in the European integration process, citing the rule of law, the fight against corruption and the approach to EU foreign policy.

We stand by the values of Article 2, and independent estimates place us among countries with the greatest democratic progress in southern Europe, from fighting corruption to rule of law, he has declared.

The prime minister has added that Kosovo has implemented the European Union’s sanctions against Russia from the very beginning, citing this as evidence of the country’s clear European orientation.

In his speech, Kurti has also raised the security issue in the region, citing the terrorist attack on Banjska, where Kosovo Police Sergeant Africa Bulnjak was killed, as well as the attack on Iber-Lepenci Canal in Varag.

He has accused Serbia of using destabilizing methods against Kosovo and has criticised the fact that Milan Radojic, whom he has described as responsible for the attack on Banjska, continues to be at large.

The decline to a European democracy is an attack on all of Europe and deserves collective answers because the occasional response is not preventative, Kurti said.

He has stressed that Kosovo’s NATO membership would contribute to preventing security threats.

Part of the speech, Kurti has also dedicated the rights of minorities in the region, seeking greater attention to the position of Albanians in the Presevo Valley.

I call on you to look closely at the Presevo Valley, where Albanians, step by step, are being pushed outside institutions, public life and civic life, as the stance is becoming much more difficult than the evacuation, he has declared.

Kurti has stressed that human rights and human dignity should be fundamental common values for the countries of the region.

In conclusion, it has re-focused the importance of the Berlin and European integration process, noting that the Western Balkan countries’ progress towards the EU depends both on internal reforms and on the political decisions of European institutions. /Telegraphy/