Kosovo- Serbia “dead” until after elections in the EU, US

Both the basic agreement on normalising Kosovo-Serbia relations and high-level talks between the two countries are the dead “ ”, according to analysts Lulzim Peci and Dusan Janjic.

The leaders of the two countries, Albin Kurti and Aleksandar Vuciq, held meetings in Brussels within the dialogue for normalising relations last time in October of last year.

This week it was a year since they agreed to the implementation guide of the basic agreement, reached in February 2023.

Despite their agreement, they express objections both to the way they apply, or to certain provisions of the agreement, which, among other things, requires good neighbourly relations, mutual respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity, but not even mutual recognition.

From the EU, mediating dialogue, said Wednesday it would need a high-level meeting between Kosovo and Serbia leaders to discuss implementing the agreement, but did not specify when one could happen.

Similarly, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that despite broad international support for the agreement, Kosovo and Serbia “have made Very little progress”.

For Lulzim Pecin, from the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, the “agreement is clinically dead”.

This, he says, is due to opposing positions of parties and lack of their will to move forward with its implementation.

Furthermore, Peci adds, the parties have created such situations that the agreement is nullified.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe, he recalls the deployment of Albanian mayors to the offices of Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo, last spring event that has raised tensions in that area.

Peci also cites the deadly attack of Serb armed groups in Kosovo Banjska on 24 September.

For this attack, Kosovo blamed official Belgrade, but he denied any responsibility.

Now we're at a point, which, besides it's a knot, is probably followed by sporadic conflicts on the ground. Here lies the greatest risk of failing to implement this” agreement, says Peci.

Dusan Janjic, from the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade, echoes those statements.

“Dialolog dead” and “is not known how this situation will end with honor”, he says.

“second, Brussels and office there have been converted into mailboxes. Politicians, the main negotiators are not going there, but they are sending their replacements and making talks”, he adds.

Janzic also remembers that the European Union is on the verge of elections for its institutions and says that, until the conclusion of this process, his mediating role in the Kosovo dialogue- Serbia will be pale.

According to him, “should not be surprised” if the current situation “is turned into armed conflict”.

Now, unfortunately, we have this awareness of Americans and NATO, that this situation needs to be complicated. That's why their hands are completely free, and I think they're doing it well”, says Janjaq for Radio Free Europe.

A day earlier, US Ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier ordered Kosovo citizens that Don't worry for possible attacks, as mission NATO in Kosovo is willing to do, as he said, the right thing.

Hovnier made the comments after reporters asked him to comment on a statement by Vuciki, which the media interpreted as a threat to Kosovo's possible “invasion of”.

“The security contracts that the US has provided remain as strong as ever before”, Havenier said.

Kurti, in some cases, has repeated that Serbia Is Danger for Kosovo, has called for faster integration into Kosovo European structures.

He, too, has said there can be no dialogue if Serbia is not sanctioned for the attack on Banjska.

At the end of the year?

Both REL co-ordinators say a positive result in normalising Kosovo-Serbia relations can eventually be achieved at the end of this year or early next year.

According to Peci, the elections for EU institutions, held in the spring, and the US presidential elections, held in November, must first be held.

Let's see whether the dialogue will be revived later, with the new composition of the European Commission, but also with the new administration in the US, which could be this present or another”, says Peci.

Janjak also says that after the EU elections and the appointment of new European mediators in Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, there may be new efforts to revive the talks.

He says the EU, with the help of the US, would have to organise a conference on Kosovo and Serbia late this year of the 1995 Dayton Conference form that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

You need to detect all the solutions. Even the war in Bosnia would not end if [Serb leader in Republika Srpska, Radovan] were expected to agree. Karadzic and [Bosnia and Herzegovina's first president, Alija] Izetbegovitch” So, you must force”, says Janjiq.

However, Houvenier, in a conversation with reporters at the end of February, expressed confused from the question of whether there is a conference organization
International for agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

Kurti, one Interview given REL This week, it did not rule out the possibility that even Kosovo could go to early elections this year.