Hill: I don't think Serbia should know Kosovo to enter the EU, what Europeans are looking for is normalisation

Speaking of the Ohrid Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, Hill said it “defined several areas of” in which the two countries should be defined and mentioned that “one of them is the need to create a community of Serbian municipalities”.

This has not started with Ohrid, you know, has about 11 years and I think it's time to implement it, but in the context of implementation there is a clear mirror for Serbs living in Kosovo. There are other elements that need to be addressed, respectively, the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and I believe this can be done and must be done in the context of the region. The Balkan region is starting to have more and more models of co-operation among all countries, and I hope it can be realised, but frankly, I am disappointed that we could not do more”, Hill said in an interview with the Serbian media, NIN.

The Ohrid Agreement contains recognition, but asked whether formal recognition is needed for Serbia to enter the EU, Hill said Europeans require normalisation, while citing that there are other countries in the EU that recognise Kosovo.

I don't think so. What Europeans are looking for is exactly what they say they want, which is normalisation. They want peace and security in the region, and certainly between Kosovo and Serbia. I think they've said very clearly that there are members of the European Union who don't know Kosovo, so the real question is to try to achieve the normalisation where those boundaries will not be the borders they share, but the boundaries that really unite, and I hope people understand what we're really saying here about the future and what people's lives will look like. And so I would like to see much more progress on this front of normalisation, and it is clear that the EU also has this in mind”, the American ambassador said.

Hill said the US supports any country that has aspirations to join the EU, and said “this is exactly what we do in Serbia”.

Serbia has things to do in the field of rule of law and similar issues, all those chapters that have been opened so far with the European Union. Therefore, our task is to try to help Serbia in this effort, because I think it is quite clear that Serbia will be in the European Union in the future”, Hill said.