Weber says Lajcak's replacement is done, requires serious Berlin-Washington involvement

Weber says that given that there was no common communiqué after the meeting, there was no immediate result.

German expert, however The DPC says the course of 13 May negotiations should be expected eventually to be seen if discussions in Berlin have produced any progress, however small, that would help unlock dialogue.

The “that would at least bring an agreement on the table issue”, Weber said.

Weber says Scholz's invitation to the Berlin meeting and the several-day tour of German top diplomat Annalena Baerbock in the Western Balkans shows a renewal of interest to revive enlargement policy towards the Western Balkan region, yet German expert says we are not yet in the phase of Germany's serious involvement in the process.

Without a serious involvement of Germany in the negotiations process, Weber says there will be real progress in the negotiations, and to achieve such a thing stresses that some preconditions must be met: unblocking France's enlargement policy and a serious new policy against Serbia.

“I think what this format has shown, since the German government has indicated, and then demonstrated the regional tour of the Western Balkans of Foreign Minister Baerbock and the invitation of Chancellor Scholz this week, has renewed the interest to revive enlargement policy towards the region, we are not yet at the stage where Berlin is engaged in a more serious review of negotiations, without which I remain convinced, that real progress will not be possible. At the same time, some preconditions must be met to achieve this, including unblocking the EU enlargement policy from France and a smaller number of other EU member states and a serious new policy towards Serbia”, Webster has told Express.

Bodo Weber in this interview has also spoken of whether the EU should be thought of replacing Miroslav Lajcak as the emissary for the dialogue, in case there is no agreement on license plates on May 13th for license plates, and if Lajcak fails to organise a upcoming meeting in Brussels.

German analyst emphasises that the decision to appoint Lajcak as emissar has shown the EU's lack of seriousness and part of Western politics, however, says neither his replacement would translate into concrete results. According to Weber, involvement in the process of higher policy levels from the Berlin-Washington Tandem.

While I remain convinced that Mr. Lajcak was primarily the result of the EU's lack of seriousness and the strategic policy of a large part of the West towards the region, and more specifically for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Mr. Lajcak would not bring any serious progress. We need a serious revival and renewal of enlargement policy, a policy consisting of Serbia, and, based on them, a serious, high-level restoration of Kosovo-Serbia negotiations initiated by the highest levels in Berlin and Washington”, Webster has said.

Finally, Weber has spoken about American politics over negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, saying that what he has seen so far does not result in any serious Washington engagement.

Weber says that in the first year of Joe Biden's power, dialogue was given a very low ranking of officials, until he says he sees no sign that this can change, not even after the events in Ukraine.

The Beden administration's first year in office is the lack of any serious engagement in the Western Balkans, leaving politics to officials of the lowest-level administration. Someone may hope that this will change with the new focus in Europe since the Russian invasion in Ukraine, but so far I see no sign of a more serious policy change” has ended Weber.