Albanian Foreign Minister Welcomes Lifting of EU Measures Against Kosovo, Calls for Candidate Status

As Brussels takes credit for reversing a policy it struggled to abandon, Tirana presses for the next step.

by the Newsroom (Tirana)

Albanian Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha on Tuesday welcomed the European Union’s decision to lift all punitive measures against Kosovo, describing the move as long overdue and urging Brussels to advance Kosovo’s application for EU candidate status without delay.

“This step was long overdue and confirms Kosovo’s commitment to European values, the rule of law, and constructive regional cooperation,” Hoxha wrote on X. “Today’s decision opens the way for full and unimpeded access to EU funds, assistance and overall cooperation.”

Hoxha called on the EU to examine Kosovo’s candidate status application “without delay,” arguing that doing so would contribute to regional stability and reinforce the European perspective of all Western Balkans countries.

The statement from Tirana came as Kosovo officials across the political spectrum welcomed the decision. Deputy Prime Minister Glauk Konjufca called it the opening of “a new phase of constructive engagement,” while PDK leader Bedri Hamza, though welcoming the move, said the measures had “unjustly affected citizens, the economy, and our European perspective.”

The measures, imposed in June 2023 following tensions in Kosovo’s north, had blocked or frozen over €600 million in projects spanning culture and the environment. Former Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati was among the most direct voices on next steps, arguing that the time had come to take Kosovo’s membership application out of the drawer.

Hoxha’s position on Kosovo’s European path is consistent with a broader Albanian foreign policy framework he has articulated in recent weeks. In an interview with the Tirana Examiner on March 16, he described Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic integration as a key Albanian foreign policy priority, and said any framework bringing the Western Balkans closer to EU standards and funding mechanisms “ultimately benefits Kosovo as well.”

The welcome from Tirana lands against a contested backdrop. The measures had been presented by Brussels as temporary and proportionate; in practice, several member states — including Italy, France, Hungary, Slovakia, and Spain — along with senior Commission figures actively worked to keep them in place long after the stated conditions for lifting them had shifted. The financial toll fell on Kosovo’s population, not its government.

Whether Tuesday’s decision marks a genuine reset or a managed pause remains the open question. Kosovo’s EU membership application has been pending since 2022. Hoxha’s call to examine it without delay now joins a chorus of voices pressing Brussels to treat that file as live — not merely as a problem that has, for now, been resolved.