EU <x0) Vuchy: Serbia cannot become member without normalisation of reports with Kosovo

The Ohrid Agreement currently makes this very clear: If there is no progress in normalisation, there will be no progress in membership negotiations”, he added.

This statement came after US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill, in an interview for the June 13th edition of the NIN weekly from Belgrade, said that formal recognition of Kosovo would not be a condition for Serbia's EU entry.

The European Union, however, has not clearly indicated whether the formal recognition of Kosovo will be a condition for Serbia to join the European Union, and Stano reiterated that the bloc's “position on this issue remains unchanged”.

The EU's position around this has not changed and remains the same, as said in the past and as mentioned in membership criteria”, Stano said.

Since Kosovo declared independence 15 years ago, the European Union has consistently indicated that the issue of recognising Kosovo is a matter of competence of EU member states and, like the European bloc, has taken a neutral stance on Kosovo's status.

But, on the other hand, Kosovo has separate contractual reports with the European Union through a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, while in the process of Serbia's EU membership negotiations, Kosovo's territory is not involved.

In the EU, they have always insisted on using the full normalisation of relations with Kosovo as a condition for Serbia. The interpretation of whether the <x0-> normalisation of the total” and the formal recognition of Kosovo by Serbia are allowing the parties to interpret it themselves in the EU.

An EU official, recalling even the changes in the framework of Serbia's EU membership negotiations, where, in chapter 35, it is included as a condition of normalisation of reports with Kosovo, has said that without that normalisation, Serbia cannot become an EU member.

At the same time, the EU has said Serbia's lobby against Kosovo's membership in international organisations constituted clear “violations of the Brussels Agreement for normalising relations between the two neighbouring countries.

The agreement on the road to normalisation is valid and fully binding for both: Kosovo and Serbia. That includes Article 4. Serbia's debut against Kosovo is a clear violation of this” agreement, EU spokesman Peter Stano told Radio Free Europe.

Under EU mediation, Kosovo and Serbia reached the Agreement towards normalising relations in 2023. It later became known as the Ohrid Agreement, but this too has remained largely unmet.

Serbia lobbied against Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe in May, which eventually decided not to put Pristina's application for membership in any way, despite having exceeded two of the three necessary phases. / REL