Last chance for Kosovo

During September, Kosovo and Serbia will meet again in Paris.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq confirmed this yesterday, during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

That such a meeting can happen even connoisseurs of political affairs in our country.

Donika Emine, executive director of the CaviCos Platform, has told of news.net, that the odds are too great for this meeting to be held.

According to her, the Paris summit comes as an effort by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to fill the space left by the EU's outgoing institutions, since Federica Moghrini is not the mediator of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

Emini says Kosovo leaders must reach political consensus about dialogue with Serbia.

The “Gjas are very large for the meeting, which was scheduled for July, to be held in September. The dedication to the Paris Summit has confirmed France's President Emanuel Macron as the successor of the Berlin Summit. This summit comes as a bid by Macron and Merkel to fill the space left by the EU's outgoing institutions, in particular the EU Foreign Action Service . Also, this comes as Merkel and Macron's effort as key EU countries to create and offer a platform that not only tries to approach Kosovo and Serbia, but also put pressure on Kosovo leaders, in this case President Thaci and Prime Minister Haradinaj ) to reach internal political consensus in relation to dialogue with Serbia”, Amyni has declared news.

She has said that, it is now known that the annulment of the Paris Summit has been postponed due to no internal co-ordination in Kosovo.

According to her, Kosovo during this time must approach political positions and create a common consensus.

“The reason for the postponement of this summit from July to September (or autumn) was precisely due to the lack of internal co-ordination in Kosovo, and diametrically opposed positions expressed extensively by the two political leaders from Kosovo. Therefore, this time would have to be used by Kosovo to bring about attitudes, to create a common position that the EU countries, as well as the new heads of EU institutions expected to take office in November”, have been expressed to the news.

Emini has stressed that Germany and France have provided indicators that they want Kosovo and Serbia to reach a solution and that way, Macron and Merkel want to take control of the dialogue process.

“Yes, at the moment France and Germany, Merkel and Macron, respectively, have provided clear indicators that they want to take over the process. This has happened after Moghrin's folly, giving support to the idea of correcting the borders between Kosovo and Serbia, or even the partition of Kosovo. The Berlin Summit has been the first step these states have taken to jointly challenge this idea”, Emini has indicated.

The other reason this meeting can be held in September is even as it stressed, the result of the need to prepare Kosovo and Serbia for new leadership in EU institutions.

“Also, intensifying efforts to hold the meeting comes as a result of the need to prepare Kosovo and Serbia for the new leadership in EU institutions, more specifically the EU Foreign Action Service Office expected to be led by Joseph Borrell, which comes from Spain to a country that has not recognised Kosovo and is very vocal against Kosovo in the EU<1>, Amyni said.

She stressed that it is the last opportunity for Kosovo to take seriously the dialogue process and show political commitment so that Kosovo can ensure international recognition.

Therefore, Kosovo leaders have the last opportunity to take this process seriously, show political commitment to close the issue between Kosovo and Serbia so that both countries can open the way to the EU, while Kosovo secures full international recognition. Any failure in this direction could cost Kosovo a lot because despite shortcomings, The EU remains the only platform where Kosovo will be able to resolve the issue with Serbia”, Amy stressed.

Even the political connoisseur, Imer Mushkolaj, has told news.net, that such a meeting could occur in September.

The “in September has had to continue dialogue because we know that the Paris Summit failed because nothing happened between Berlin and Paris that could be considered progress in this process and Macron's message suggests that by September it would mean during these summer months something would have to happen. When I say something would have to happen, there would have to be concrete actions both from Kosovo and Serbia so the dialogue can continue. So it's a direct message that obstacles to dialogue are removed. In this case, it's actually about the tax, even in order to continue the dialogue”, Mushkolaj said.

He has also said it is problematic for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue to continue without any guarantees from Germany and France concerning the dialogue and territorial integrity of Kosovo.

The “on the other hand is problematic that the ongoing dialogue without any guarantees in the sense that Kosovo can even remove the tax, but if you receive any guarantees in this case from the two most powerful EU states, France and Germany, whether in terms of access to dialogue or in terms of competition, the dialogue can be carried out without violating the territorial integrity of the state. Otherwise, to continue dialogue only for face-to-face, just to say that it's going on, I don't believe that this way France and Germany and so much less Kosovo, because this very way of dialogue has brought the situation here is even dialogue in some form has become completely a non-serious process from which we all know has benefited Serbia more than Kosova”, Muskolaj stressed.

Even Eugen Cakoli from the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) has said that efforts by Germany and France to persuade Kosovo and Serbian leaders to return to the negotiating table have been markedly stepped up.

Recent “Coch has been frequented when leaders or top officials of Germany and France are trying to convince the parties to give up their current positions on issues related to dialogue in particular on the tax issue in order to allow practical resumption of dialogue between the parties. In fact, President Macron's own visit to Serbia may see next efforts to convince the parties to sit at the dialogue table. But trying to cover in some form the other side's demands in Serbia's case to continue the dialogue without being officially seen as such a continuation, so it is designed that, in terms of the supposed triatrical approach between Kosovo, Serbia and the officials of Germany and France to continue this process then in order to reach an agreement between the parties as soon as possible, given the availability of both sides so that such an agreement could be reached within this year eventually later of next year”, Cacol told the news.

According to him, continuing dialogue with Serbia, Kosovo should have its stance on the framework that has been spoken of should be known what and what will be discussed in the dialogue.

Calcol has also indicated that it should be clarified at first that this is not a dialogue between Albanians and Serbs, but it is dialogue between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia, as well as clarified and discussed on the common issues of interest on which the final agreement can be reached, but only after the parties have recognised each other as independent and sovereign states.

The “well is very important for the Kosovo side to stay behind the stance that should initially have a framework on what will be discussed, what are the issues that will be discussed with the Serbian side and what is the outcome that the parties will aim to achieve on their path respected both in terms of EU integration but also in resolving the dispute between the state of Kosovo and the state of Serbia. In this direction it must first be clarified what kind of dialogue and should not be demonstrated and seen as dialogue between Albanians and Serbs but structured in that form to understand that there is dialogue between the state of Kosovo and the state of Serbia and then to discuss what common issues of interest that can be reached on them or even issues that could potentially be discussed only after the parties have recognised each other as independent and sovereign states”, Cacol noted.

He stressed that Kosovo's final goal in this dialogue should be recognition of independence from Serbia on the existing borders.

Also important is that the final goal of the Republic of Kosovo in any kind of dialogue process with Serbia is formal recognition on existing borders in order to ensure that the state of Kosovo is still functional, not violating its unitar character, but not violating territorial integrity through a specific deal of”, Cakoli told news.

However, whether Kosovo and Serbia can meet in September, Cakoli expresses sceptical, saying that such a thing is difficult to imagine especially after rumours that in autumn Kosovo and Serbia may have extraordinary parliamentary elections.

“In view of the fact that the Paris Summit has failed in the absence of parties to reach an agreement, I believe it would be hard to imagine that such a meeting would be held in September, since both sides, and especially Kosovo, are entering a period in which the voices that may have been raised that could have extraordinary parliamentary elections just during the autumn season, but such a thing has not been ruled out either in Belgrade, so there are also recently voices that we can go to the elections and I believe that in the pre-election process of entering the pre-election process in which this country would automatically postpone any possible meeting between Kosovo and the process of dialogue between the two sides. In this direction if we have electoral processes then I believe that the process of dialogue in general will be postponed by the middle of next year when we could potentially have draft agreements between the” parties, Cakolli said.

It should be stressed that dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia has been blocked since November last year, when the Kosovo government had made a 100 per cent customs duty decision on Serbian goods and products.

This decision by the Government of Kosovo had come in response to Serbian propaganda, which prevented Kosovo from membership in INTERPOL.

However, the continuation of the dialogue Serbia is conditioning it on tax removal, while Kosovo state leaders are determined to keep the tax until Serbia recognises Kosovo's independence.