{"id":963712,"date":"2026-05-16T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/963712\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:31:19","slug":"with-kos-in-town-kosovo-urges-eu-to-grant-candidate-status-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/963712\/","title":{"rendered":"With Kos in town, Kosovo urges EU to grant candidate status \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cKosovo urgently needs to catch up on EU-related priorities,\u201d Kos said <a href=\"https:\/\/kallxo.com\/lajm\/komisionarja-per-zgjerim-e-be-se-viziton-kosoven-takon-haxhiun-dhe-kurtin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">during a press conference<\/a> with caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina. \u201cKosovo needs stable institutions and an effective government,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and applied for EU membership in 2022, but major hurdles still stand in the way of candidate status. <\/p>\n<p>Five EU countries \u2014 Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Cyprus \u2014 still do not recognize Kosovo, while Belgrade also refuses to recognize its independence, which hinders the normalization of relations between the two sides.<\/p>\n<p>Both issues remain paramount to Kosovo\u2019s EU path, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/kosovo-heads-third-election-over-year-after-failing-elect-president\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/kosovo-heads-third-election-over-year-after-failing-elect-president\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">its political instability<\/a> has also deterred its progress, as it will hold <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/kosovo-heads-third-election-over-year-after-failing-elect-president\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/kosovo-heads-third-election-over-year-after-failing-elect-president\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">snap elections on June 7<\/a> after its government collapsed after being unable to elect a president.<\/p>\n<p>Some \u201c41 months after we applied for EU membership, it is time for Kosova to receive its candidate status and open the accession negotiations,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/albinkurti\/status\/2055298510027628810\" target=\"_blank\">Kurti wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cThe EU accession process will further consolidate Kosova\u2019s democracy, increase economic growth, and improve the well-being of our citizens, which is a shared goal and a mutual interest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cKosovo urgently needs to catch up on EU-related priorities,\u201d Kos said during a press conference with caretaker Prime&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":963713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[146569,8612,31,33,6561,2000,299,5187,1699,1450,1195,36152,60437,2452,809,6564,1438,6567,2558,182,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-963712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-albin-kurti","9":"tag-cyprus","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-enlargement","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-greece","18":"tag-growth","19":"tag-kosovo","20":"tag-marta-kos","21":"tag-media","22":"tag-negotiations","23":"tag-neighborhood","24":"tag-romania","25":"tag-serbia","26":"tag-slovakia","27":"tag-social-media","28":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116584034247910708","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}