EU takes no stance on Kurti's reciprocity proposal

Kurti, after taking office on 3 February, has declared that the tax on Serbia will be lifted and replaced with political, economic and trade reciprocity, viewing the move as a principle of sound relations between the two states.

Regarding the reciprocity issue, the US president's special envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Richard Green, has declared that he does not support Kurt's idea of introducing the reciprocity measure to Serbia. His spokesman, Dick Cusstin, has declared for Radio Free Europe that Ambassador Yerenelli encourages Kosovo to remove the tax without implementing reciprocity.

During the visit to Pristina, before Serbia's new government is elected, Yerenelli ordered that tax removal should happen at the same time, even with the interruption of Serbia's campaign to attract recognitions of Kosovo independence.

Also, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who removed the 100 per cent tax on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be important for returning the parties to the negotiating table.

“We hope and expect that it will make a priority and take advantage of the moment that has emerged behind letters of intent for establishing airlines and railways between Pristina and Belgrade”, Pompeo has said.

In the letter he sent to Kurt on the occasion of choosing the new government, he has said that now “is the time to realise the overall normalisation of relations with Serbia, focused on mutual recognition, which is of crucial importance for Kosovo's full international integration”.

The United States will support you in that process”, says the letter.

However, official Brussels, Berlin and Paris, are silent over the matter of reciprocity, but insist on tax removal, so that the possibility of continuing Kosovo-Serbia dialogue can be opened. Official Belgrade is refusing to return to the negotiating table in Brussels until Kosovo lifts the tax, which Ramush Haradinaj's preliminary government imposed in November 2018, on the goods of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Radio Free Europe has asked the German Embassy in Pristina how Germany comments on the Kosovo prime minister's warning that the tax will replace it with reciprocity measures. In her response, this embassy has stressed that their stance has not changed.

The German government would welcome the immediate removal of the 100 per cent tax on Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This would be an important step for the renewed initiative of dialogue under the umbrella of the European Union”, the German Embassy in Pristina said in response.

In the same question, European Union spokesman Peter Stano has told Radio Free Europe that the full trust of Belgrade and Pristina is initially needed, and that both sides are responsible to ensure the quick continuation of dialogue.

“During the visit to Kosovo and Serbia, the high representative and vice president (Joseph) Borell has stressed that issues like taxes in Kosovo and some diplomatic activities of Serbia have created unnecessary tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, and both sides must bring back the situation, in which dialogue is possible”, Stano stressed.

Asked how she comments on reciprocity measures, the EU Special Representative in Pristina, Nataliyya Apostolova, on February 5th in Pristina, at a media conference with Kurti, she has stated that along with the need for tax removal, the new government, “is expected to come up with new proposals and ideas on how to deal with this matter”.

Regarding the need to lift the 100 per cent tax on the goods of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the end of the campaign against Kosovo independence on the part of Serbia, France's President Emmanuel Macron has also spoken.

He, through a letter sent to Prime Minister Kurti, has said that this is necessary to resume the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. Macron has offered support to Kurt for normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia, stressing that this is a major challenge for Kosovo's future, but also for European security.

In July last year, I called on Serbs and Kosovars to act as Europeans, demanding a compromise. The first step, of course, should be to resume the dialogue, which I'm willing to facilitate by organising in Paris, soon, a summit with the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia, along with Chancellor Merkel and High Representative Borell”, is said in the letter of Macron, which he sent to Kurti on February 7th.

The Brussels dialogue, between Kosovo and Serbia, started in 2011 as a technicalist and has continued since 2013 as a political dialogue, when even the first “Agreement on the principles of normalising Belgrade and Pristina” has been reached.

Since November 2018, when Kosovo has applied the 100 per cent tax on goods of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, official Belgrade has sponsored its participation in the dialogue until the removal of that move.

During the impasse of this dialogue, however, Berlin and Paris have tried to contribute to relations between Pristina and Belgrade, with the goal of reaching a final agreement between the two sides.

At a conference of Western Balkan leaders in Berlin, in April 2019, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered that the conference is not intended to replace the Brussels process, nor are talks between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as that the <x0-> final solution for Kosovo and Serbia cannot be at the expense of others in the region”.

The next meeting, which would have to be held in Paris in July 2019, has been cancelled, until then Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has insisted that he lift the tax until Serbia recognises Kosovo's independence.

In the relations of Kosovo and Serbia, in recent months, the US ambassador to Berlin, Grenelli, has been specifically involved, who managed to ensure the reconciliation of both sides for the deployment of airlines and railways, which the European Union has suddenly occupied “”.