Will the Paris Meeting Succeed? Speaking to connoisseurs and Political Developments

According to them, a so-called flying diplomacy will visit Pristina and Belgrade this month, and there are already trends to create preconditions so that the Paris summit is successful.

But statements, which have come from both countries' authorities, as connoisseurs say, have cast doubts about whether the Paris meeting will succeed.

Naim Rashit, director of the Balkan Policy Group in Kosovo, tells Radio Free Europe that Kosovo has already been asked in an extensive manner to suspend its 100 per cent tax on Serbia's products, meanwhile, the latter has been asked to change behaviour over Kosovo.

According to him, after the Paris meeting, if it happens, it will be seen whether the process of dialogue between the two countries will resume, though, he says, there are already doubts that dialogue can continue if the Paris meeting fails.

“If Miss Merkel and President Macro fail to resume this process, I do not believe the EU will find the power to resume this dialogue in a later phase. Mrs. Merkel and President Macron would be included in this form of the summit, only if there is a very intensive and multi-responsive will for a final agreement”.

“For this are not preconditions and I don't see how this will begin. Since this is not happening, then it will remain to be proven if eventually the parties can return to the previous form of dialogue,

Politologist Ramush Tahiri, speaking of Radio Free Europe, estimates that if Serbia and Kosovo continue to set preconditions, wanting all history complexes to solve through a signing, as well as wanting to impose a solution on each other, this will not help the process.

“I think that with normalisation of relations, all other issues will be resolved by normal procedure, just as they are resolved on all states. So, what do I expect? Understanding and an agreement on normalisation, which would imply a peace agreement without prejudging the final solution, because normality is not the ultimate solution, but it is a prerequisite for making other agreements for each area”, Tahiri points out.

Rashit voiced the opinion that if the Paris meeting fails, then an eventual agreement between Kosovo and Serbia that would resolve the dispute between the two countries would be very distant.

With Paris' failure, it goes too far. Paris and earlier Berlin had to create a very intensive process of dialogue and eventually create an intensive process towards a final agreement. If it fails here (in Paris) we will be far away and I don't believe Kosovo has energy, but Serbia, too, will enter a very slow and multi-year process in search of the agreement. Some dialogue may even have to continue, but for final agreements, we'll be a long way from”, Rashi estimates.

Politologist Tahiri suggests that if the high authorities of Kosovo and Serbia only meet in Paris, then this organisation cannot be considered a failure.

But if they don't meet, then the question of dialogue is postponed for another period. But the situation in Kosovo should not and dare not be exacerbated. It could be toughed if Serbia forces Serbs out of institutions and recreate parallel structures. Otherwise, any other solution is acceptable, within the norms that we consider to be European and dealing with individual and collective rights and freedoms, as well as with the functioning of Kosovo as a state across the entire body of”, stands in Tahiri.

However, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, after Thursday's meeting with German Chancellor Merkel, has stressed he does not expect the process to be closed soon. However, he has stressed that there is the possibility of reaching a major “agreement following President Donald Trump's evolution and direct involvement of Chancellor Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron”.

He has added that “if this is not achieved, then the next option is to have a several-month or several-year process”.

On the other hand, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, who has insisted that dialogue not start without the removal of the tax on Serbia's products, has stressed that the Paris meeting is “of the great importance”, though, as he has said, is not entirely certain whether this meeting will be held at all.