Kosovo ready for EU candidate status, Kurti says after meeting with Austrian chancellor

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that he met with Austria’s Federal Chancellor, Christian Stocker, in St. Stefan, where they discussed the government’s priorities for its new mandate and the deepening of relations between the two countries.

In a Facebook post, Kurti said the meeting covered concrete opportunities for economic cooperation in the fields of energy, railways and digital technology, where investment from Austrian companies and the Kosovo diaspora is steadily increasing.

“In Vienna, we met just two days after the snap parliamentary elections of June 7, while this morning in St. Stefan on the Adriatic Sea, my conversation with Austria’s Federal Chancellor, Christian Stocker, focused on the government’s priorities for its new mandate and the further advancement of bilateral relations,” Kurti wrote.

He added that the meeting discussed concrete opportunities for economic cooperation in energy, railways and digital technology, a sector in which Austrian companies and the Kosovo diaspora are investing increasingly more.

Kurti recalled that four months ago, two concrete steps had been discussed: integration into SEPA and the EU roaming zone. Regarding the first, Kosovo has now also fulfilled the final requirement by adopting the full set of necessary laws, while regarding the second, it expects negotiations to begin soon.

He expressed support for Chancellor Stocker’s statement that the European Union is neither complete, secure nor stable without the Western Balkans, and that all candidates should be treated equally, under the same conditions. According to Kurti, based on merit, the Republic of Kosovo is ready to advance on its European path, obtain candidate-country status and open negotiations.

In conclusion, Kurti added humorously that after the 3:1 result in Vienna and the 1:1 draw in Pristina, the two countries are also growing closer in football.