EU continues discussions on Kosovo, Serbia today

The European Council will discuss relations between Kosovo and Serbia today during the second day of the European Union Summit (BE), following a day packed with numerous but fruitless meetings between the leaders of these two countries with EU leaders Thursday in Brussels.

European Council President Charles Michel said at a conference Thursday in the backline that the Council did not discuss relations between the two Balkan countries yesterday, adding that “we support normalisation of reports and enlargement [of the situation]. We will discuss this tomorrow [Friday] at the Council meeting”.

During today's Council meeting, EU leaders are expected to express their deep concern for the security situation in northern Kosovo, condemn the September 24th attack on Kosovo Police in the north, demand that those responsible be brought to justice and that Serbia co-operate fully in investigating the case. Also, Kosovo and Serbia will be asked to implement all their obligations from the dialogue without delay and without preconditions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyeen said the Commission is awaiting the outcome of investigations about the Zvecan Banjsk attack on Zvecan ʹ for which Kosovo leaves Serbia guilty when asked about allegations that the Commission has no balanced stance, as it took measures against Kosovo earlier this year but not against Serbia, which denies responsibility for last month's attack.

“I'll be very short in response, investigations are under way and we've said several times that when the investigations are completed, we'll decide to take measures and what kind of measures”, she said.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, were hosted Thursday in separate meetings by leaders of Germany, France, Italy, as well as by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and EU special representative in Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak.

The meetings, named as attempts to revive dialogue on normalising relations, ended without any reconciliation between the parties.

According to EU leaders, achieving reconciliation prevented the conditions the parties presented.

After the meetings, Kurti said only signing agreements with the neighbouring country guarantees their implementation, while Serbian President Vuciq insisted on implementing “that has been signed”.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is mediating talks on normalising Kosovo-Serbia relations, said the agreement between them was not possible, because one side's “preconditions were unacceptable to the other”.

He confirmed that the topic of discussions in Brussels was the new Western diplomats' proposal for the Association of Serb-run municipalities in Kosovo, which was introduced in Pristina and Belgrade on 21 October.

The “Piles were unwilling to agree to it without preconditions, which are unacceptable to the other side. In the end, we demand that the parties be sincerely engaged in the normalisation process”, Borrell said.

According to him, this “can only be done under the dialogue, because it is the only way to advance on the European path”.

“We will continue to insist and work to reach an agreement. But today, unfortunately, it was not possible”, the European top diplomat said.