Kosovo is a vibrant democracy that would function excellently as a member of the EU and NATO because it has no divided loyalties, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said in Pristina on Thursday, after meeting with his Kosovo counterpart Vjosa Osmani.

“If such a country were to join one of the two alliances, you would know what to count on. If the government changes in democratic elections, everything stays more or less the same in terms of loyalty to the state and integration processes,” he said, adding that this “can not be said of all countries in the region.”

The European Union for its part should be straightforward towards Kosovo in terms of “what it wants and which prospects it gives”. Kosovo’s status is currently “static”, he said, noting that that was the recipe for “a kind of political depression.”

Milanovic therefore advised Kosovo authorities to learn from the mistakes other countries had made on their journey towards EU membership so as to avoid “repeating others’ mistakes and illusions”, and to focus on their own interests.

“I will talk with and try to persuade those I know have influence,” he said, adding that he and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic would help “open the doors” they can help open.

Osmani said that Croatia was one of the countries that had supported Kosovo “in the most difficult moments of our history” and was a key ally.

She said that Kosovo had been clear about its wish to join Euro-Atlantic integration processes, noting that Croatia had provided extensive support as a member country. Croatia has a direct understanding of the importance of Kosovo’s membership of NATO, she said.

Milanovic noted that Kosovo was a friendly country with which Croatia shared “plenty of bitter experiences.”

He also said that “the level of ignorance and lack of knowledge of the situation in Kosovo, and particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the highest levels of government in Western Europe, is amazing.”

“They (Western European leaders) have other business to tend to,” so “second and third- class officials are dealing with this region,” he said, adding that “a semi-colonial administration” was being formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Kosovo’s independence is not recognized by five EU members – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Spain and Slovakia.

Milanovic said that he understands the reasons of one or two of those states, and would do his best “to explain the matter” to them.

“People lack information because that is not important, there is no war, there is no immediate humanitarian danger and the matter is being left to ferment. That is not the way serious organizations treat countries in their immediate neighborhood,” Milanovic said.

Open Balkans Serbian put-on

Milanovic and Osmani critically commented on the Open Balkans initiative, launched in October 2019 under the name Mini Schengen, by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Ministers Edi Rama of Albania and Zoran Zaev of North Macedonia.

The proclaimed purpose of the initiative is cooperation in the region based on EU principles on the free movement of people, goods, services and capital.

Serbia has the key role and at the same time it does not recognize Kosovo’s independence. We cannot expect Vucic to have good intentions towards Kosovo and the region, Osmani said, adding that in recent years Serbia had become militarised and had been destabilising neighbouring countries.

Milanovic said that the Open Balkans initiative, if it was “well-intentioned”, should include all countries in the region.

“It makes no sense if it does not include Kosovo,” he said.

“This Open Balkans put-on… This is not 1914, if Kosovo is not included, the intentions are clear and they are not very humanist,” he said.

Asked by a reporter if Croatia would make Serbia’s EU membership conditional on its recognition of Kosovo, Milanovic said the question was hypothetical because Serbia’s “real interest” to join the EU “is only hypothetical”.

“My assessment, feeling and estimate is that the priority goal of those in power (in Serbia) and the man in Belgrade is not EU membership but staying in power. That is legitimate but does not accord with European values,” he said.