Rama warns Serbia's new leaders are unlikely to recognise Kosovo
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has said Serbia's new leadership is unlikely to change its refusal to recognise Kosovo, keeping one of the Balkans' most persistent disputes at the centre of the region's EU path. He made the remarks at the Enlargement Summit in Brussels, where he said the Student List, which won Serbia's recent election, remained unwilling to discuss recognition. Rama said that meant the position in Belgrade would not change.
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Rama described recognition of Kosovo as the "dearest subject" for Albanians and said the Serbian student movement, like most political forces in the country, still views Kosovo as an "inalienable part of the Republic of Serbia". Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and applied to join the European Union in 2022. The dispute has remained a major obstacle to Serbia's EU accession, with Brussels repeatedly pressing for a normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
The Albanian prime minister also criticised Serbia's reluctance to align with other EU policies, including sanctions against Russia. He said Serbia needed to prove it deserved membership by delivering on what he called non-negotiable commitments. His comments underline how the Kosovo issue continues to shape the wider enlargement debate in the Western Balkans, where EU membership remains a central political goal for several governments.
The issue is significant because the EU has long treated normalisation between Serbia and Kosovo as a key condition for progress in accession talks and for reducing tensions in the region. Kosovo's statehood remains disputed by Serbia, and that disagreement continues to affect diplomacy, security and the pace of European integration. Rama's remarks also link the Kosovo question to broader concerns in Brussels about whether Serbia is aligning closely enough with EU foreign policy.
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Rama used the same event to restate Albania's own ambition to finish accession negotiations by the end of 2027, while stopping short of setting a firm membership date. Albania has been a candidate country since 2014 and formally opened negotiations in 2020. He said enlargement should remain merit-based, but argued that Europe needs to bring candidate countries into the same framework over time.
What remains unclear is whether Serbia's new political leadership will alter its position at all, or whether the current stance will continue to block movement on the EU track. It is also not clear whether the latest comments will lead to any immediate diplomatic response from Belgrade or Pristina. For now, the dispute remains a central test of regional normalisation and of the EU's ability to advance enlargement in the Western Balkans.
