German Foreign Minister: “Skeptical about Kosovo-Serbia border. EU accession negotiations, not automatically opened in 2019”

19/09/2018 18:03

The German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, is attending a visit in Tirana, where he met with his Albanian counterpart, the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ditmir Bushati.

When asked about the Kosovo-Serbia border correction issue, he said that Germany is skeptical on the matter.

“There is concern about a possible domino effect. We are skeptical on this issue. It needs to be better clarified before it brings more problems besides the ones that are already there”, the German Minister said.

As for Albania’s EU accession negotiations, Maas stated that the decision for having Albania open the accession negotiations by June 2019 does not mean that it will open automatically.

“There are clear criteria. Albania needs to take further steps in order to convince those who are skeptical about this process”, Maas said.

“Albania has taken giant steps with the judicial reform, which led to the vetting of judges and prosecutors. This is an achievement that will be followed in the entire region, and that will influence the fight against organized crime and corruption. We will keep supporting Albania in these reforms”, Maas said.

 

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