Analyst: Without great pressure, dialogue risks failure

According to them, the process of normalising relations between the two countries risks failure.

Comments follow a new round of talks that took place Monday in Brussels amid Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, and his Serbian counterpart, Petar Petkovic.

In the agenda of discussions were issues stemming from the Ohrid Agreement for normalisation of relations, but both sides said there has been no progress.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, have orally agreed to this agreement.

Among its most controversial points is that it requires the implementation of all agreements that have been reached earlier, including the one for forming the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo.

The European Union's envoy for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said the May 15th meeting aimed at “clarifying open issues” and that “executions will continue”.

However, he did not specify when the next meeting will be held.

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Muhariri, professor of Sociology at the University of Pristina, says the way the dialogue is currently under way, diminishes the likelihood that implementation of the agreement on normalising relations will succeed.

According to him, the meetings of chief negotiators “are infertile” and prove that “alone the high-level political presence in dialogue and direct international pressure on them can produce concrete results on key questions”.

The key to this is that Prime Minister Kurti and President Vuciq are constantly witnessing that only they are alfa and omegaque of all dialogue and any meeting where they are not present is destined to fail. But, in the Balkans, only major pressures are effective and only with great diplomatic pressures can we move forward (thus) qualityally, says Mujajiri for Radio Free Europe.

Kurt and Vuciq met for the last time on May 2nd, when they also agreed to the Declaration on the Missing Persons of War. On the next issue that was under discussion, the draft association of Serb-run municipalities, respectively, disagreed.

However, he did not specify when the next meeting will be held.

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Muhariri, professor of Sociology at the University of Pristina, says the way the dialogue is currently under way, diminishes the likelihood that implementation of the agreement on normalising relations will succeed.

According to him, the meetings of chief negotiators “are infertile” and prove that “alone the high-level political presence in dialogue and direct international pressure on them can produce concrete results on key questions”.

The key to this is that Prime Minister Kurti and President Vuciq are constantly witnessing that only they are alfa and omegaque of all dialogue and any meeting where they are not present is destined to fail. But, in the Balkans, only major pressures are effective and only with great diplomatic pressures can we move forward (thus) qualityally, says Mujajiri for Radio Free Europe.

Kurt and Vuciq met for the last time on May 2nd, when they also agreed to the Declaration on the Missing Persons of War. On the next issue that was under discussion, the draft association of Serb-run municipalities, respectively, disagreed.