Conference Report: The Youth as
Promoter of the EU Integration of Kosovo "Advocacy for Young People of
Kosovo"
On Thursday the 13th of January ThinkYoung organised a conference titled ‘The Youth as Promoter of the EU Integration of Kosovo: Advocacy for Young People of Kosovo’ which took place at the Google Office in Brussels.
The introduction speech was given by the Chief Thinker of ThinkYoung, Andrea Gerosa, who briefly presented the objectives of the project. The most important one was to raise awareness on the situation of young people in Kosovo with special focus on the visa liberalisation issue. A special mentioning was made on the visa issue which grew to be also a visa issue for the project itself. Three potential interns from Kosovo, winners of the Essay Competition that was organized under the framework of this project, Kade Leniqi, Darsei Canhasi, Blerta Zogiani, were rejected a visa from the Embassy of Belgium. Two of them prepared essays on this topic which afterwards were distributed among the participants of the conference.
The conference kicked off with a presentation of ThinkYoung research by Lindita Komani which was conducted in both Kosovo and at EU level. Most remarkably, the survey demonstrated that 45% of the Europeans are convinced that the lack of involvement of this country in the EU visa liberalisation discussions should be changed, 28% thought it to be unjust and 18% said it could be potentially dangerous, while only 14% of them considered it to be just.
Another surprising result is that 89% of the students from Kosovo stated that given the chance to work abroad for a short period of time, they would return. These results show that the EU Member States do not have to fear an influx of permanent migrants from Kosovo if visa liberalisation is to be granted.
The documentary video did not only give a good insight into the country itself, but also showed the positive attitude of the youngsters. Despite the fact that the majority of them expressed their wishes to go study abroad and discover other European countries, they made clear that after some years abroad they would want to return to Kosovo in order to contribute to the building of their society and economy.
The presentation of the research was followed by a viewing of the ThinkYoung documentary video 'A po vjen n’Prishtine – Wanna come to Prishtina?’ on the lives of young people in Kosovo.
After the video, the panel discussion was launched. The panel consisted of Member of European Parliament, Ms Ulrike Lunacek, the Ambassador of Kosovo to Belgium, Mr Ilir Dugolli and senior policy analyst of the European Stability Initiative, Ms Alexandra Stiglmayer. The topic of the panel discussion concerned the issue of EU visa liberalisation towards Kosovo. Currently, people from this country have to apply for a visa in order to travel, work and study in the European Union. The standard procedure for a country to obtain visa liberalisation starts with the EU opening a dialogue in which the conditions for visa liberalisation are outlined. Despite the fact that Kosovo has adopted several reforms and that its neighbouring countries in the Western Balkans do have visa free travel to the EU, up to now the EU has not opened a visa dialogue towards Kosovo.
Firstly, MEP Ulrike Lunacek said that “if it was for the European Parliament, Kosovo had already been given visa liberalisation”. Lunacek points out that the main problem is the Member States fear of illegal migrants. She continued to explain: “The promises made by the EU which are not maintained reduce credibility inside and outside Europe”. In addition, she stated that in case Kosovo remains isolated “people will turn to more radical views, and from a political side, there is a danger in this”.
Secondly, Mrs Alexandra Stiglmayer, policy analyst at the European Stability Initiative pointed out that “Kosovo is being treated differently than the other countries in the Western Balkans”. For these countries, the signing of a readmission agreement, which obliges to take back their illegal migrants and those who have illegally entered the EU through them, was sufficient to obtain visa liberalisation. However, Kosovo has to fulfil additional criteria which are related to the reintegration of Kosovar returnees. Despite the fact that it came a long way in fulfilling these criteria, the EU still has not opened an official visa dialogue and has not provided Kosovo with an official list of conditions that have to be fulfilled.
Thirdly, the Ambassador also pointed out that he feels that his country is being discriminated against. He stressed the fact that “most of the progress in the other Western Balkan countries was only achieved when a clear set of benchmarks had been provided”.
In the audience, several questions were raised. One was about the extent to which the lack of progress in visa liberalisation is related to the fact that Kosovo has not been recognised by several EU Member States. It was surprising to find out that some of the countries that currently hamper the visa liberalisation process are recognising Kosovo as an independent state. In addition, Alexandra Stiglmayer pointed out that the non-recognition of a country does not mean that the EU cannot have a visa liberalisation agreement with it. This can be demonstrated by the fact that Taiwan, which has not been recognised by any of the EU Member states, did obtain an EU visa liberalisation agreement.
Another question that was raised concerned the extent to which the election results will influence the visa liberalisation process. In this regards, the panellists expressed their hope that the granting of visa liberalisation will not be connected to it.
ThinkYoung is happy to look back at a successful project and conference, and therefore has decided to continue to advocate on the visa liberalisation issue for Kosovo with a second edition this year.
On Thursday the 13th of January ThinkYoung organised a conference titled ‘The Youth as Promoter of the EU Integration of Kosovo: Advocacy for Young People of Kosovo’ which took place at the Google Office in Brussels.
The introduction speech was given by the Chief Thinker of ThinkYoung, Andrea Gerosa, who briefly presented the objectives of the project. The most important one was to raise awareness on the situation of young people in Kosovo with special focus on the visa liberalisation issue. A special mentioning was made on the visa issue which grew to be also a visa issue for the project itself. Three potential interns from Kosovo, winners of the Essay Competition that was organized under the framework of this project, Kade Leniqi, Darsei Canhasi, Blerta Zogiani, were rejected a visa from the Embassy of Belgium. Two of them prepared essays on this topic which afterwards were distributed among the participants of the conference.
The conference kicked off with a presentation of ThinkYoung research by Lindita Komani which was conducted in both Kosovo and at EU level. Most remarkably, the survey demonstrated that 45% of the Europeans are convinced that the lack of involvement of this country in the EU visa liberalisation discussions should be changed, 28% thought it to be unjust and 18% said it could be potentially dangerous, while only 14% of them considered it to be just.
Another surprising result is that 89% of the students from Kosovo stated that given the chance to work abroad for a short period of time, they would return. These results show that the EU Member States do not have to fear an influx of permanent migrants from Kosovo if visa liberalisation is to be granted.
The documentary video did not only give a good insight into the country itself, but also showed the positive attitude of the youngsters. Despite the fact that the majority of them expressed their wishes to go study abroad and discover other European countries, they made clear that after some years abroad they would want to return to Kosovo in order to contribute to the building of their society and economy.
The presentation of the research was followed by a viewing of the ThinkYoung documentary video 'A po vjen n’Prishtine – Wanna come to Prishtina?’ on the lives of young people in Kosovo.
After the video, the panel discussion was launched. The panel consisted of Member of European Parliament, Ms Ulrike Lunacek, the Ambassador of Kosovo to Belgium, Mr Ilir Dugolli and senior policy analyst of the European Stability Initiative, Ms Alexandra Stiglmayer. The topic of the panel discussion concerned the issue of EU visa liberalisation towards Kosovo. Currently, people from this country have to apply for a visa in order to travel, work and study in the European Union. The standard procedure for a country to obtain visa liberalisation starts with the EU opening a dialogue in which the conditions for visa liberalisation are outlined. Despite the fact that Kosovo has adopted several reforms and that its neighbouring countries in the Western Balkans do have visa free travel to the EU, up to now the EU has not opened a visa dialogue towards Kosovo.
Firstly, MEP Ulrike Lunacek said that “if it was for the European Parliament, Kosovo had already been given visa liberalisation”. Lunacek points out that the main problem is the Member States fear of illegal migrants. She continued to explain: “The promises made by the EU which are not maintained reduce credibility inside and outside Europe”. In addition, she stated that in case Kosovo remains isolated “people will turn to more radical views, and from a political side, there is a danger in this”.
Secondly, Mrs Alexandra Stiglmayer, policy analyst at the European Stability Initiative pointed out that “Kosovo is being treated differently than the other countries in the Western Balkans”. For these countries, the signing of a readmission agreement, which obliges to take back their illegal migrants and those who have illegally entered the EU through them, was sufficient to obtain visa liberalisation. However, Kosovo has to fulfil additional criteria which are related to the reintegration of Kosovar returnees. Despite the fact that it came a long way in fulfilling these criteria, the EU still has not opened an official visa dialogue and has not provided Kosovo with an official list of conditions that have to be fulfilled.
Thirdly, the Ambassador also pointed out that he feels that his country is being discriminated against. He stressed the fact that “most of the progress in the other Western Balkan countries was only achieved when a clear set of benchmarks had been provided”.
In the audience, several questions were raised. One was about the extent to which the lack of progress in visa liberalisation is related to the fact that Kosovo has not been recognised by several EU Member States. It was surprising to find out that some of the countries that currently hamper the visa liberalisation process are recognising Kosovo as an independent state. In addition, Alexandra Stiglmayer pointed out that the non-recognition of a country does not mean that the EU cannot have a visa liberalisation agreement with it. This can be demonstrated by the fact that Taiwan, which has not been recognised by any of the EU Member states, did obtain an EU visa liberalisation agreement.
Another question that was raised concerned the extent to which the election results will influence the visa liberalisation process. In this regards, the panellists expressed their hope that the granting of visa liberalisation will not be connected to it.
ThinkYoung is happy to look back at a successful project and conference, and therefore has decided to continue to advocate on the visa liberalisation issue for Kosovo with a second edition this year.