Pristina, 14 December 2022 (dpa/MIA) – Kosovo has officially applied for membership of the European Union after a corresponding document was signed by President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Parliamentary Speaker Glauk Konjufca in the capital Pristina on Wednesday.

For Europe’s youngest state, it was a rather symbolic act: EU membership is currently out of reach for the country, which has been independent since 2008.

Formally, Kosovo only has “potential EU candidate” status. Candidate status, which Bosnia-Herzegovina is expected to receive on Thursday, is not up for discussion. The main obstacle is that five EU member states – Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus – do not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

The country, which today is almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, used to be part of Yugoslavia or Serbia.

Following repression by the Serbian security forces of the Albanian civilian population, NATO bombed targets in what was then the rump of Yugoslavia – that is Serbia and Montenegro – in the spring of 1999.

The Serbian security forces and state organs left Kosovo. The administration and the creation of Kosovan institutions were taken over by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

In February 2008, the Kosovan parliament declared independence. More than 100 countries, including Germany, but not Russia, China, Serbia and the five EU countries, recognized the new state.

To this day, Serbia has not renounced its claim to the territory of Kosovo. In doing so, it repeatedly stirs up tensions in the northern part of the country, which is inhabited by a majority of ethnic Serbs.