Kosovo plans to formally submit an application to join the EU over the coming days — a bid to show European capitals it is serious about reforms and moving closer to the bloc. 

“We are ready to put Kosovo on the new trajectory,” Besnik Bislimi, Kosovo’s first deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, told POLITICO in an interview.

Still, the EU accession process is notoriously extensive, requiring years of regulatory changes, as well as economic and judicial reforms. And Kosovo’s case is particularly fraught for the EU. Five EU members — Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain — still don’t recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Bislimi said he knew it would be a while before Kosovo could be ready for membership, but he cited 2030 as an initial target.

The EU, he said, will “never be complete without the Western Balkans.” 

The country’s application comes at a crossroads moment for the EU.

For years, enlargement has stalled, with many countries expressing fatigue after the EU folded in many of the Continent’s central and eastern countries. But Russia’s war in Ukraine has created a new impetus to safeguard Brussels’ geopolitical influence, with EU capitals increasingly worried about losing their neighbors to Moscow’s sway.

In recent months, the EU has focused specifically on the Western Balkans, pitching the region on a future more integrated with the EU — and promising to revive semi-dormant membership aspirations.

One advantage for Kosovo, Bislimi said, is its young population, which is the “most enthusiastic one to join.” The deputy prime minister — an economist and academic by profession — also expressed optimism that his country will be able to quickly implement economic changes. 

“In my opinion, the abundance of entrepreneurial spirit that you see in Kosovo would, to some extent, make these economic reforms easier for us,” he said. 

But he also acknowledged the considerable challenges, notably adopting the EU’s rule-of-law standards.

“In the rule of law, it’s not as easy because of a long period of stagnation,” he noted, adding that “resistance” from “the losers of the new reforms is much higher in the justice system than the economy system.” 

As for the contentious issue of recognition, Bislimi argued the EU’s current non-recognizers will ultimately not pose an obstacle to Kosovo’s accession bid.

“Since the membership is a longer-term process,” he said, “we believe that by then we will be ready to solve all those disputes that have prevented these countries to recognize Kosovo, and then make this question unnecessary.” 

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but the two countries remain in a tense standoff that occasionally flares up. The EU has been leading a dialogue between the two countries that has produced little progress over the past years.

But the deputy prime minister said there is a path ahead after Brussels recently put forward an updated proposal. 

“We hope to very soon start this important and intensive process of intermediate normalization,” Bislimi said. “We will call this a basic treaty — a treaty which might bring a solution to most of the disputes between Kosovo and Serbia, but not necessarily mean full normalization.” 

Even a partial deal with Belgrade could help open the way for Kosovo to move closer to the EU and boost the chances of full normalization down the line, according to the deputy prime minister.

“I think the very idea of having this intermediate step might be sufficient,” Bislimi said, “to show the commitment of sides to those skeptic countries — and move them on the way of recognition.”