Slovenian diplomat: Time for Kosovo-Serbia agreement is unlimited

When something turns out to be possible, tensions increase”.

“I hope the cause of nervousness about Kosovo is the nearness of the possibility of progress in dialogue, not that something is really happening with license plates or similar”, says Frangesh in an interview for the BBC in Serbian.

The Franco-German proposal for resolving relations between Serbia and Kosovo, unknown to the opinion behind which the European Union stood (BE), for Franshi, comes at a time of good circumstances.

“We are in a situation where perhaps for the first time since the beginning of the dialogue, we have leaders from both sides who are very strong in their environments and between voters who can make and implement difficult decisions”.

“also, in a year and a half or two to come, there is no need to have elections, and larger European and Western countries have stable governments”, he says.

Anzej Frangesh is a multi-year-old Slovenian diplomat who in various positions dealt with Balkan relations, mainly those between Kosovo and Serbia.

Today, he is one of the special representatives for the Western Balkans, along with Miroslav Lajcaku (BE), Gabriel Escobarin (United States), Manuel Zarrazin (Germany), German-French double Jens Plettner of Emmanuel Bonnen, and Stuart Peachin (Great Britain).

Kosovo: From “to dusk” to an opportunity for an agreement

In early 2004, Anzej Frangesch wrote about Kosovo as the <x0mzone sunset” in an authorial text for the Slovenian newspaper “Finance”, ranking above all failures and economic difficulties in the early years after the establishment of international governance in Kosovo.

Less than two decades later, and nearly 15 years from Kosovo's declaration of independence, he sees things differently.

I don't think it's a twilight area, of course I see light and that light should be the European perspective, but we from Europe should provide that light”.

No one can claim that everything has been resolved. There's a lot left to do”.

The past years were also marked with numerous negotiations, primarily those in Brussels, which resulted in largely minor developments in relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Fragesh himself has been participating in some of the discussions, such as resolving the issue of telecommunications, Kosovo's call prefix, by 2015, one of those that function best in practice.

I thought that everything would have ended at this time and perhaps I was naive that we would reach the final phase of negotiations for EU membership with Serbia”.

Where magic was lost I don't know, but of course I think it has more to do with political will”.

The chief negotiators are now arguing publicly over the issue of license plates, while far from the public's eye they are negotiating much more ambitious topics.

The Franco-German proposal for normalising relations between Serbia and Kosovo has been discussed for several months, but besides the official confirmation that the proposal exists, details are not publicly known, Klankosova broadcasts.tv.

Meanwhile, the proposal has become European, but the official of one of the EU members remains loyal to the secret diplomacy marking this process for now, so he says he will not answer the question when or if he has seen the Franco-German proposal.

BBCWhen did you see the Franco-German proposal, that is, the European proposal for resolving Serbia-Kosovo relations?

FrameworkI think these are some things that should remain at the moment in the field of quiet diplomacy”.

BBC: “A is a German-French initiative or an EU initiative?”

Framework: “The message we're all giving is that this is an EU-led process and there's a negotiator for it and we're doing everything we can to have coordinated positions and help Miroslav Lajcaku”.

How long do Belgrade and Pristina have to close their positions, for Anzej Franghesh, not for clear deadlines.

There's something that doesn't have to be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but it's clear that time is not unlimited”.

I don't know there's a direct time pressure, but there's a space that isn't eternal though I'm not sure things can end in a few months”.

While waiting to understand what Belgrade and Pristina are really talking about, Kosovo citizens remain the only ones in the Western Balkans who cannot travel to Schengen countries without visas.

Frangesh believes it is important to make a political decision that would enable the visa-free regime and that then it is technical issues when it will be implemented.

Asked whether this issue is also used in negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo as a form of pressure on Pristina, Frangeshi answers:

I don't think there's a direct connection, but there's an atmosphere in which one can see if someone's co-operative, so the states that decide can make a easier decision”.

I haven't been present in conversation where someone says if you do anything, you'll get something, but it's clear that someone's willing to make a positive gesture when such gestures come from the other side of”.

What is Slovenia for the Balkans?

When Anzej Frangesh describes the situation in the Western Balkans, he describes it as nothing simple or easy, adding that much has changed since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

In previous years, public interest and politicians in the Western Balkans waned because there was neither great progress in reforms nor problems”.

The new circumstances are also an option, so Balkan friends said if Ukraine and Moldova can, why, for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be able to obtain the status of an EU membership candidate”.

In June 2022, four months after the start of Russian aggression, the European Union granted membership candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.

When Frangesh was appointed special envoy to the Western Balkans from Slovenia in August, he became the first such representative from a country that is not part of “quint” (an informal organisation of five major Western countries: US, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and France.

We have historical experience, geographically close, and everything that happens here affects us, we are connected by economy and culture”.

“We have specific interests and people individually also have interests: they travel mostly into the Balkans, feel like at home”.

Frangeshi is not afraid that Yugoslav heritage would burden the Slovenian role, but rather, he mentions Ljubljana's contributions on the European path of Western Balkan countries.

When we led the EU for the first time, we linked Stabilisation and Association Agreements with all those who until then had not, have been actively working on visa liberalisation, we invested a lot of time for Serbia to finally open a chapter in negotiations on membership”.

“I think Slovenia has a reputation of a sincere partner in the Balkans”, Frances concludes.