The rapporteur for Kosovo, Peter Beyer, between Europe, the Balkans and the USA

The rapporteur of the German parliament for the Western Balkans, Peter Beyer, was elected on Thursday the rapporteur of the Council of Europe for Kosovo. But who is Beyer?

"It's clear, for us this is very good news, Kosovo's ambassador in Berlin, Beqë Cufaj, told DW." Peter Beyer is a very good connoisseur of Kosovo and the Balkans, but also with very strong connections in the United States of America. His appointment will bring more differentiated reports for Kosovo in the Council of Europe", said Cufaj further, who knows the German deputy also from his many activities in Berlin.

Peter Beyer was born in 1970, in the town of Ratingen, in the Land Nordrhein-Westfallen (North Rhine-Westphalia). The father of two school-aged children, studied law, politics and history in Düsseldorf and Bonn, as well as in Virginia, United States of America. After a career of several years in several international offices, he started his political career in 2002, as a member of the city council of his current residence, Heiligenhaus. In 2009, he ran for the first time for deputy in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and won a direct mandate with almost 40% of the votes. His victory returned the constituency, Mettmann II, to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had lost power there for 15 years.

Knowledge of the Balkans and Kosovo

The Christian Democrat deputy, who since 2009 is the rapporteur for the Western Balkans in the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee, knows Kosovo not only from the meetings of the offices in Pristina and Berlin. In September he was again in Podujevë to support the twinning of the northeastern city of Kosovo with one of the cities in his area, Velbert. Beyer has been supporting the twinning initiative for ten years now, which was finally crowned in April this year.

He is one of the early supporters of visa liberalization for Kosovo citizens and the most energetic defender of Kosovo's territorial integrity. In various interviews and speeches, he has always expressed himself against the thesis of changing the borders and has called in almost every speech held in the Bundestag for the recognition of Kosovo by the five states still rejecting the EU. "It is in the interest of the European Union not to leave the doors open for other actors and to strengthen their influence," argued Beyer in his most recent appeal to the Bundestag on the occasion of the extension of KFOR's mandate, in June 2019.

A convinced transatlantic

Despite all the kindness he has for the Western Balkans, he does not hesitate to voice his criticisms openly: Either by repeatedly asking the Kosovars to waive 100 percent taxes on Serbian goods, or by making it clear to Serbia that the prerequisite for membership its in the EU is the recognition of Kosovo. These requests are not willingly heard by the local politicians.

Peter Beyer managed to win the race for the rapporteur for Kosovo in the Council of Europe challenging his Russian competitor, Aleksey Kondratjev, who still treats Kosovo as part of Serbia. It is not only Podujeva that unites Peter Beyer with Kosovo, and his pro-independence stance. He is also united with the Kosovars by deep gratitude towards the United States of America. Like the Kosovars who are grateful to the superpower across the Atlantic for liberation from the oppression of the Milosevic regime, Beyer is also grateful to the USA for the support it gave to the German Unification process. Last week he expressed this thanks publicly with an article titled "Thank you America!" in the German daily "Frankfurter Allgemeine".

Since 2018, Beyer has been the German government's commissioner for transatlantic relations, thus serving as a liaison in resolving the many frictions that currently exist between the Trump administration and the Merkel government, one of which is undoubtedly the issue of the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue. Beyer's appointment as rapporteur for Kosovo in the EC strengthens his position as an important observer and mediator in the Europe-Balkans-USA/DW triangle.