EU: Kosovo hinders normalisation of relations

“Today was not possible to exceed the” gap, EU foreign policy officer Josep Borrell said after meeting in Brussels with Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, who was again called a next failure.

Borrell said Kurti is not willing to grant more autonomy and establish the Association of Serb-run municipalities. But for that, Kosovo has agreed on a 10-year dialogue with EU-backed Serbia. Prime Minister Kurti had insisted in Brussels that prior to granting autonomy to Serb municipalities in Kosovo, Serbia must recognise Kosovo, Borrell said.

The EU's in charge of Foreign Policy has indicated that it has proposed to Kurti and Vuciqi to develop plans for the Association of Serbian municipalities and recognition of Kosovo in parallel. In all, Borrell's proposal was that a time starting to establish long-conclusiond association would begin in Serbia's part steps for the recognition of Kosovo. But Kurti, unfortunately, has insisted on recognising Kosovo as a first step, Borrell said, while Vuciq accepted the proposal.

Borrell warns from stagnation state

Borrell warned both sides of stagnation and that it would undermine the desired EU membership. “Without normalisation for neither Kosovo nor Serbia will have a European future”, Reuters quoted EU busy Josep Borrell as saying. So even the last meeting in Brussels with EU mediation brought no success even after several hours of negotiations.

Prime Minister Kurti retaliated after the EU response and accused the EU of partiality and of making Serbia's position its own. President Vuciq, in turn, demanded that the talks continue. “We need to talk and find a way ahead of”, Vuciq said.

German media have also reflected Thursday's (14.09) meeting in Brussels, and stress failure to reach agreement between Serbia and Kosovo on normalising relations. The EU's “efforts to defuse major tensions between Kosovo and Serbia failed again”, writes the ZDF online portal. Deutschlandfunk writes that “the attempt to mediate between Kosovo and Serbia on the part of the EU was once again unsuccessful”. / DW