Kosovo is remaining outside the pace of European Union enlargement at a time when Montenegro is approaching a key stage on the path to membership. Nearly four years after submitting its application, Pristina has still not received even the minimum procedural step for a formal review, while the blockage appears linked both to the political deadlock within the EU and to the unresolved burden of the dialogue with Serbia.
Montenegro moves ahead, Kosovo remains waiting
On November 4, the European Commission set June 2027 as an indicative deadline for signing the accession treaty with Montenegro. This does not mean immediate entry into the EU, but it is a strong political signal that Podgorica is much closer to the finish line than its neighbors.
For Kosovo, the picture is entirely different. Although it shares the same European perspective as the countries of the region, its process has still not officially entered the formal tracks of accession. This leaves Pristina in a clearly weaker position compared with the pace seen in other Western Balkan countries.
Application submitted, but not sent for review
Kosovo submitted its application for EU membership in December 2022. However, eight presidencies of the Council of the EU have passed without forwarding the request to the European Commission for assessment, which is the necessary step to begin the formal review.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti has claimed that Kosovo’s position does not reflect the country’s progress and has called for candidate status as soon as possible. But beyond the political statements, the fact remains that Kosovo is the only country in the region that still has not received this status and has not even crossed the first procedural threshold.
The comparison with the region makes the wait even heavier: Serbia needed around 10 months for its application to be passed to the European Commission, Montenegro around four months, and North Macedonia less than two. Kosovo, even after nearly four years, continues to stand still.
The five non-recognizers and the shadow of the dialogue with Serbia
Part of the blockage is linked to the fact that five EU member states do not recognize Kosovo: Greece, Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Cyprus. According to assessments by experts cited in the analysis, for these countries even forwarding the application to the Commission can be seen as an issue with legal and political consequences.
But this is not the only obstacle. Another reading links Kosovo’s stagnation to the lack of progress in the dialogue with Serbia, which the EU continues to treat as a fundamental knot for any advance in integration.
For more than three years, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have not met within the framework of the EU-mediated dialogue. The agreements reached remain largely unimplemented, while Brussels continues to make the European perspective of both countries conditional on the normalization of relations.
EU report highlights shortcomings, but not a full answer
This year’s European Commission report highlights a lack of progress in the judiciary, limited results in the fight against corruption and limited implementation of the agreements with Serbia. The prolonged institutional crisis is also mentioned as a factor that has slowed reforms.
However, the report does not explicitly list these shortcomings as direct reasons why Kosovo’s application is not moving forward for review. This leaves open the suspicion that political decision-making in the EU is weighing just as much as, or even more than, the technical balance sheet of reforms.
In this context, it also remains unclear what concrete diplomatic efforts Kosovo’s government has made to persuade skeptical states and whether these moves have produced any real result.
The risk of falling behind in the region
While other Western Balkan countries are moving at different speeds toward the EU, the risk for Kosovo is not only symbolic. According to expert assessments, the delay could deepen political and economic inequalities in the region, especially if countries moving closer to the EU become more attractive to investors and gain more weight in European policymaking.
In the most unfavorable scenario, Kosovo could remain a peripheral neighbor of the EU, while the gap with countries nearing membership becomes increasingly visible. This would also increase internal political pressure, especially if citizens see that surrounding countries are moving forward while Kosovo’s process remains frozen without deadlines and without a clear roadmap.
This is precisely where the fundamental problem becomes clear: unlike visa liberalization, where at least a list of criteria existed, for candidate status Kosovo has no clear trajectory. And when the written path is missing, decision-making remains even more exposed to the political calculations of Brussels and member state capitals.
Amid unfinished reforms, non-recognition within the EU and the frozen dialogue with Serbia, Kosovo’s road toward the union remains more hostage to politics than to a predictable calendar.
If Montenegro now has an indicative horizon, Kosovo still does not even have a clear starting signal. That makes European integration not only a matter of standards, but also a tough test of political balances in the region and within the European Union itself.