Critical EU Silence for Kosovo, Serbia

Each has contributed its own contribution, dozens of meetings have been held, and as many agreements have been reached. But reaching the ultimate goal remains far away.

Kosovo's Albin Kurti and Serbia's Aleksandar Vuciq have not met since 14 September 2023.

Ten days later there was an attack on Banjska, where armed groups of Serbs have attacked the Kosovo Police and killed a police officer. This escalation of the situation has taken the most serious situation over the years to the point that the two countries are critical.

“was the eleventh meeting of the leaders I led. So, meeting with leaders, not among them. Because, this time, there was no trilateral meeting”, Borrell said.

EU foreign policy direction is now expected to take over former Estonia Prime Minister Kaya Kallas.

It appeared this week at the hearings before the European Parliament, spoke of the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, the danger from China, the strengthening of defence in Europe and other issues, but, surprisingly, very little about the Western Balkans where the EU has a lot of influence and is directly involved in certain processes, including mediating talks between Kosovo and Serbia.

She has said nothing concrete about this dialogue, which will lead her own, has only pledged that EU enlargement with Western Balkan countries will become a reality.

I think we really should have a success story in the next five years, because this is not just about the prosperity of the region, but also about giving hope to that”, Callas said.

Richard Jozwiak, editor for Europe of Radio Free Europe, says he is surprised by the ignoring of the Western Balkans in the EU's foreign policy speech.

He says he has expected Kallas to mention it alongside other important regions, such as Ukraine and the Middle East. For dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, as well, it has expected special attention.

The fact that he didn't mention the Western Balkans during the opening speech, which lasted 15 minutes, and then there was only one question for him from the Eurodeputs, has shocked me. Similarly, the fact that no European Parliament MP seems interested in a region that is very close to the EU”, says Jozwiak.

Among the most urgent political challenges, Leon Hartwell, senior LSE associate The London School of Economy IDEAS says Kallas has probably chosen to prioritize EU security issues as a whole and set aside dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

The questions that will certainly dominate her time in office are the ongoing struggle between Russia and Ukraine, relations between the EU and the US, especially after Donald Trump's victory in presidential elections, then China will remain an important issue, energy security, and so on. Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia will not have immediate attention if there are no security problems, which are very likely”, Hartwell says of the Expose programme. Radio Free Europe.

In recent years, escalation of tensions between Kosovo and Serbia has consistently generated challenges and conflicts. The European Union has repeatedly urged representatives of both countries to seek through negotiations.

Despite that, the sustainable solution remains far away and the EU does not have the luxury of long-standing dialogue, Hartwell says.

“The potential for instability is quite high and definitely this is not a matter to be overlooked. Even more, when it is considered that the Balkan region is a vulnerable area of Europe. Whatever happens in the Balkans, not only does it remain in the Balkans, but it has a major effect of extension in the rest of Europe”, Hartwell says.

Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti has issued some conditions for continuing dialogue between them, as well as handing over Serbia to persons responsible for the attack on Banjska.

In some cases, he has accused the European Union of “overlap” Serbia's what the EU has denied.

During an address last month, he has said he expects new dynamics from the new European Commission in terms of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, but has not specified more.

Serbia's president, Vuciq, on the other hand, is constantly seeking from Kosovo to establish the Association of Serb majority municipalities, for which there is an agreement since 2013.

Jozwiak believes that many moves in the dialogue process will intensify after Kosovo ends parliamentary elections in February 2025.

Asked what could push things forward, Jozwiak recalls a conversation with former EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has brokered the first agreement on normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia:

She said that secret sauce is to engage and talk, talk, talk, and talk, and know the two leaders. Now we have let us call two strong statesmen in Kosovo and Serbia, who have great support in their countries”.

Those two men will make or not make deals. And Kaya Kallas, or whoever's in her position, will have to drink a lot of coffee with them or other stuff”, says Jozwiak.

For Hartwell, the ball is originally on the EU side. According to him, Kallas should promote the bloc's five non-recognising countries -- Greece, Slovakia, Spain, Cyprus and Romania -- to recognise Kosovo and thus put pressure on Serbia to give up its refusal to recognise Kosovo.

For as long as Serbia views Kosovo as part of its territory, it is tasked to protect everything that happens in that territory, and this creates a state of uncertainty. This is the first”.

The second “, any agreement the EU promotes between Serbia and Kosovo, should be a step towards recognising Kosovo. Kallas cannot focus on preserving the status quo. It should push reciprocity” forward, Hartwell says.

For more than a decade of negotiations, Kosovo and Serbia have reached dozens of agreements from free movement to recognition of state symbols, but many of them remain uninvolved and parties accuse each other of failure.

None of the conversationaries expect that, in terms of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, the European Union will boost co-operation with the United States, which by January will also have new administration.

Jozwiak expresses sceptical about the current US interest in engaging in the matter.

“would make sense for the EU and the US to be on the same page in the Western Balkans. But I have the feeling that dialogue will remain the EU. I'm not sure the U.S. has any real interest in being at the helm when it comes to the Western Balkans. Maybe it'll change”, Jozwiak says.

In the words of Professor Hartwell, Kaya Callas, who is Estonian, “well knows what it means to live next door to a very large neighbor, which poses a constant existential threat to your safety”. It refers here to Russia, which divides a border of nearly 200 miles [300 km] to Estonia.

Hartwell says convinced that Kallas will not take the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue priority, but stresses that it is important not to neglect it completely. A proactive approach not only would calm tensions between the two countries but also help the region's stability in general, according to him.

At a meeting with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani in 2021, Estonia's then prime minister has stressed the need to improve Kosovo's relations with Serbia, with the argument that a safe Western Balkans “is in the interest of all of Europe”.

How much longer negotiations that have started since 2011 and have often produced uncertainty instead of solutions, no one says. But hopefully not another 13 years. / REL/