Anger with Lajcak: Is Kurt closing the doors to the European family?

The anger of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, with European mediators of talks with Serbia, is “fully reasonable”, Free Europe Radio Leon Hartwell, senior associate at London School for Economy and Political Science, says.

From Kurti's point of view, he says, “seems to be required to insist on respecting EU-brokered agreements”, while Serbia, which “has not pledged the signing and ratification of any such agreement, can choose what to implement”.

Speaking at a conference with reporters in Pristina on Monday, Kurti said EU envoy for Kosovo-Serbia talks Miroslav Lajcak was positioned against Kosovo in Meeting between the sides last week.

At that meeting, Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, disagreed over steps they should take to implement Base Agreement for normalising relations achieved in Brussels in February.

European dialogue mediators said Kurti was the one who rejected their proposal for “simultaneous fulfillment” of the obligations coming out of this agreement, while Vucic accepted it.

“Or we will implement the basic agreement in its entire full, or we cannot only apply what Serbia wants”, Kurti said on Monday.

The following “Days, of course, will have meetings with all international factors who have accepted the state of Kosovo and who want to help us”, he added.

The Kosovo government did not answer Radio Europe's free question about whether Prime Minister Kurti is closing the doors of communication with Lajcak.

Until the publication of this article, neither the European Union responded to the REL's request to comment on Kosovo's prime minister's statements.

Anger with Lajcak, the brave

Hartwell says that “is important to explain that Kurti is not closing the door to the EU as the main facilitator body of talks”.

His appointment focuses mainly on the performance of Josep Borrell and Miroslav Lajcak's two most prominent European officials, tasked with mediating Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. In addition to their careless approach and dialogue management, it is noteworthy that Borrell and Lajcak come from Spain and Slovakia, two countries that do not officially recognise Kosovo's independence”, Hartwell says.

For Africa Hoti, professor of International Law at the University of Pristina, distrust of Lajcak dates back to when he was minister of foreign affairs of Slovakia once in 2009-2010, then in 2012-2020.

From that post, recalls Hoti, Lajcak has voted against Kosovo in its accession process in international organisations.

“This is what the Kosovo prime minister is already putting out, is virtually known much earlier, only that it is already being said in very clear terms. Given the fact that Mr. Lajcak has the support of all major European Union centres, but also the secondary ones of all EU member states, including strong support from the United States, I remember that the situation is becoming really complicated”, says Hoti of Radio Free Europe.