Palmer: Agreement without recognition possible unless Pristina, Belgrade agree

US Special Envoy Matthew Palmer, said the final goal of the United States remains to achieve mutual recognition between Belgrade and Pristina, but that Washington also supports the other modalisations of the agreement if the two sides agree.

After talking with special EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak and senior officials in Belgrade and earlier in Pristina, Palmer told the Serbian medium N1 that they are closer to an agreement today, “in the sense that both sides are willing to engage seriously in dialogue”.

We believe that only mutual recognition ends this issue. We have a vision of the future. We plan that Serbia and Kosovo should be fully integrated into the European family, to be members of the European Union. How can two EU member states be if they don't know each other? This clears the European road to both sides. That is why we, like the United States, see full mutual recognition as the best way to achieve integration. Under ideal conditions, we believe that this mutual recognition should be the focus of the future normalisation agreement”, Palmer said.

A deal is broken into everything the two sides agree on. And our goal is to encourage the parties to sit together, show what their red lines are, what they can't and what they can't do. We do not determine the agenda, nor do we determine the outcome. They run the whole process. It is up to Belgrade and Pristina to determine what is a normal relationship for them or a more normal relationship than now”, he explains.

Speaking of “non-paps” that appeared earlier, and which envisioned changes in the borders of the Western Balkans, Palmer said these documents do not deserve any attention and are insignificant.