Macron points out why France is sharply rejecting visa removal for Kosovo

The Berlin summit ended without reaching a common denominator for resolving the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia. Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron had indicated that they did not want to impose a solution.

When Kosovo President Hashim Thaci came to the Brandenburg Gate to make the statement after the summit, journalists had been waiting two hours, trembling at the German capital's winter temperatures.

The nearly two-hour delay involved mainly the unsuccessful efforts of the German-French leadership of the summit to convince Kosovo leaders to give up customs duties on Serbia. Of the participants at the meeting, it is learned that Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's insistence on not taking this step, which Serbia has set as a precondition to resume stalled talks in the country, was a little disappointing.

The disappointment had also been for the Kosovo delegation, France's insistence not to liberalise the visa regime towards Kosovo. Thaci expressed this disappointment even before journalists: “Even tonight there was uncertainty about this process. It is discrimination and punishment for Kosovo”, Thaci said.

According to DW sources from meeting participants, President Macron had argued the disapproval of lifting the visa regime with France's poor experience following visa liberalisation with Albania and Georgia, where the number of irregular migrants and criminality from these countries increased. Launched by the current election campaign for the European Parliament's elections, Macron had argued that if he were to lift visas for Kosovo as well, it would be in favour of the rightist National Front party.

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The Berlin meeting, which took place under the Franco-German chairmanship, according to Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, failed to find a common denominator. At least at the two points that concern Kosovo: visa liberalisation and the unconditional continuation of dialogue with Serbia. Thaci told reporters at the end of the small summit in Berlin that confrontation with the Serbian side had been “heavily for the Kosovo delegation, which included Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli.

According to Thaci, despite Chancellor Merkel's intervention, the Serbian side had declined to accept in any way the recognition of Kosovo, a precondition set by Kosovo to lift customs fees. Kosovo had also stood in its position not to give up 100 per cent customs duties imposed on Serbia following its campaign against Kosovo membership in Interpol. Chancellor Angela Merkel, prior to the meeting, had called tax delivery “a development not in the right direction”.

Even Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq had said before the media that the summit brought nothing new. The last “word of this summit was to continue talks in a narrow format with the mediation of the European Union, Germany and France, so that a solution can be found to continue dialogue”, Vuciq has declared.

At the summit held Monday evening in Berlin, France and Germany had invited leaders from the Western Balkans, Slovenia and Croatia to exchange views on resolving open conflicts. The signing of a document by all participants was initially envisioned, but at the end of the meeting the German Chancellor's press office made public only the conclusions of the French-German joint leadership.

The spirit of the document published at night is positive and contains a general language. According to the document in question “Serbia and Kosovo agreed to continue their efforts to implement existing agreements and to engage constructively in the dialogue of normalisation of EU-brokered relations, with the aim of reaching a final comprehensive agreement”. The document does not mention customs duties on Serbia, nor does the proposal for border change.

At the start of the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron had indicated that they did not want to impose a solution, but the solution would have to bring stability throughout the region: “there can be no agreement, the consequences of which other countries might suffer”, Merkel said. Both cited resolving the Northern Macedonia conflict as a positive example. According to Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, although meeting such a format had no success, it would probably continue in narrower forms, even in the future. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in Paris in July. Thaci himself was sceptical of resolving the conflict without US mediation. Since before the meeting he had said that “The EU is weak and that miracles cannot be expected from it”.