5 minutes agoEscobar today in Belgrade, later in Pristina
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)US State Department special envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar visits Serbia today. The senior American official, as Radio Free Europe finds out, will visit Kosovo this week as well. In Belgrade, Escobar is meant to hold separate meetings with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, and with [...]
In Belgrade, Escobar is meant to hold separate meetings with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, and with Serbian Prime Minister Anna Brnabiq.
The visit of the top US official to Serbia will take place three days before the new round of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, to be held on March 18th in Ohrid, North Macedonia.
Also, Escobar will stay in Belgrade after the EU's two-day visit to Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, who also stayed in Kosovo last week, to prepare the Ohrid summit.
The US supports the process of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, mediated by the EU. Washington also supports the European proposal for normalisation of reports, which has been accepted 27 February by Kosovo and Serbia.
At the March 18th meeting, Kosovo and Serbia are expected to talk about implementing this proposal.
Earlier, the US State Department stated that an agreement on implementing the European proposal “is essential to normalisation” of reports between Kosovo and Serbia.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, have not yet signed the proposal, but have agreed that there is no need for this document to have further negotiations.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, have not yet signed the proposal, but have agreed that there is no need for this document to have further negotiations.
Kurti has expressed herself willing to sign Serbia's <x0-capitalisation “, under the EU, the signing of the agreement, but Vuciq has declared that it is not in his mind to sign Serbia's <x0.
However, Lajcak said on March 14th that establishing the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo is the main condition for implementing this agreement.
For association, Kosovo and Serbia have signed agreements in 2013 and 2015. But in 2015 The Kosovo Constitutional Court found that the agreement that same year was not in full harmony with the highest judicial act of the state and said it could be harmonised.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has voiced opposition to a single-ethnic association, with executive competence.
But, on March 13th, Kurti acknowledged that Kosovo is dealing with the 15 models offered by the European Union for Association, so that “we can get elements so that not only human rights, but also the rights of national minorities are at the right level even in our country”.
The US and the EU have repeatedly called on Kosovo to create association, both Washington and Brussels, have expressed opposition to the creation of an association that would resemble the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Kurti has expressed fears.
Otherwise, in the European proposal for normalisation, consisting of 11 articles, no agreements on establishment of association, nor mutual recognition, that the Kosovo Government has said should be at the centre of an eventual agreement for normalisation of reports.
However, Article 2 of the proposal mentions that parties must respect each other's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The proposal also includes the parties' commitment to honour all agreements reached so far in the dialogue on normalising relations, as well as their commitment not to prevent each other from obstructing integration processes.
