Weber: Kosovo divide would be fatal

German analyst Bodo Weber says he would be surprised if a comprehensive, legally binding agreement between Kosovo and Serbia were reached during 2019.

The reason for this, according to German analyst, is that all parties in the negotiations -- first and foremost Serbia -- encouraged by the EU's top representative, Federica Mogherini and its team, later supported by Kosovo President Hashim Thaci -- spent a year and a half in the new phase in dialogue to promote the idea of demarcation and correction of the border, respectively, the exchange of territory or partition of Kosovo.

This began as an initial political spin from Belgrade, and it seems to me that it has cleared in an effort to exploit a dose of the crisis and political weakness of the West, encouraged by a part of the EU and US actors. But it turned out that the West, above all the EU, was not as weak as some”, Weber told the Serbian newspaper “Blic”.

German analyst says that this is why negotiations in 2018 ended completely in blockades, until Belgrade's attempt to postpone dialogue out of the framework that has been defined at the outset, accepted by all negotiating parties, acknowledged by the recognition of the reality of Kosovo's loss from Serbia and focused on the overall normalisation of the two countries and to ensure the normal life of Serbs living in the state of Kosovo, was rewarded with the prospect of membership in the European Union and support in Serbia's economic empowerment dealt with failure with the rejection of the idea of ethnicity by Germany and most EU member states, with parliamentary parties and parliamentary resistance.

I doubt all negotiators have given up the idea of dividing and exchanging territory, but it will not pass. But if this idea were to pass, it would not bring stability and it would be fatal for the lives of Kosovo Serbs in the south and north of the Iber River. The road to the final agreement leads through a full review of the negotiations, return to the initial framework of dialogue, return to political reality, and not through a comprehensive campaign to support the state of Kosovo by Belgrade authorities”, said Weber, submits Telegrafi.

“Fokus should be in what would ensure that the real agreement will be historic ʹ the full normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, as well as the bilateral relations between two democratic states, for daily life, the daily problems of Kosovo Serbs, security and socioeconomics”, he said. /Telegraphy/