Kurti's pledge to Brussels for “contact” and “implementing all obligations” from the agreement what is expected?

As his extended mandate is going towards an end, the European Union's emissary for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, has enjoyed some of President Vjosa Osmani's ideas for implementing the currently stalled Basic Agreement.

Lajcak met Osman on Saturday, before returning to Brussels from New York, where the two stayed for the UN Assembly's Summit Week.

“I appreciated its thoughts and recommendations on how to implement the Ohrid Agreement”, Lajcak wrote in an X post.

The day before, Lajcak sat down even in front of Albin Kurt, at a meeting of Kosovo's prime minister with Assistant US Secretary of State Jim O'Brien and the US envoy for the Western Balkans, Alexander Cassanoff, but in New York.

Lajcak said he joined the Americans in meeting with Kurti for “discussed the way ahead of”.

We found that there is no alternative for quick implementation of the Road Agreement towards Normalisation”, he said.

With O'Brien, Kasanof and Lajcak, Kurti said there were “productive conversations for current developments and the future”.

“Prime Minister Kurti also underlined his commitment to regional co-operation on the principles of representation and equal participation among the countries of the Western Balkans and renewed constructive commitment and engagement in the process of normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia according to the principles of the Basic Agreement and its Annex, which must be applied to full”, was said in a communique issued by Kurti's office.

But, in a post in <x0X” about this meeting, Kurti said he again mentioned the deal to O'Brienıt and Lajcak that it must be signed.

In the UN Assembly margins, Lajcak also met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, with whom he said he also discussed “the need for re-admission and implementation of the Ohrid Agreement in light of the EU Growth Plan for the” region.

On September 13th, as he was declaring Serbia's “constitutions” in response to the Kosovo Government's actions in the north, Vuciq reaffirmed the pro-cognition position reached in Ohrid, democracy ruled out.

With the Ohrid Agreement we have no problem, and that's what I've been talking about in Serbia's Parliament. The Republic President's words are binding because they are equally important as the document written” Vuciq had said.

At the same time, he said there are no ideas about the Ana Brnabyk letters with which reservations were expressed about a part of the Ohrid Agreement that relates to Kosovo's membership in international organisations.

I don't have a clue what letter this is about”, Vuciq said.

In New York, prior to the meeting with Kurti, Lajcak had a meeting only with Americans O'Brien and Cassanoff, with whom he stressed there was a strategic “discussion for the dialogue for normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia” and “regional dynamics”.

“Mazi we expect to continue our conversation next week in Brussels!”, Lajcak warned.

The last time Kosovo and Serbia have talked in Brussels on 17 September, at the level of top negotiators. The implementation of the agreement has been one of the topics, but the question of sequenceing what one side must implement and what other parties have blocked. Kosovo The international community asks the government to approve the draft Association status and to send it to the Constitutional Court, but many find it impossible because of the February 9th elections and Kurti's calculations regarding the process.

Kurti's pledge to Brussels for “contact” and “implementing all obligations” from the agreement

Ahead of the US trip, Kurti remained in Brussels for several days. On September 20th, he met with European Union Enlargement Director Gert Jan Koopman, with whom he also talked about the Kosovo-based dialogue process. Serbia

He, as Prime Minister's Office announced, has been told that the Republic of Kosovo “has consistently been a constructive party and that it is in interest to complete this process”.

“In this sense, the prime minister has confirmed to Director Koopman the position in support of the Basic Agreement and the Implementation Plan, reached last year”, the communiqué said.

At that meeting, Kurti had pledged to implement all obligations by the Basic Agreement.

The prime minister, quoted him as saying that “Kosovo, with this, reaffirms its commitment to the process of normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and vows constructive engagement in the process to move it quickly ahead of”.

“in this context, Kosovo vows to fully implement all the respective obligations that come out of the Basic Agreement for the Road to Normalisation and its Anexis Equipment, including all past dialogue agreements. The implementation details will be discussed in the dialogue under the convenience of the EU”, Kurti was quoted as saying.

For what Kurt said in Brussels before heading towards New York “Germany's Ambassador to Kosovo Jorn Rohde. According to him, Kurti's pledge is enough for Kosovo to make payments from the Growth Plan.

He said it is a clear public commitment to continue dialogue with Serbia in a constructive spirit.

“This is a key step towards the first distribution under the EU Growth Plan”, Rohde wrote on Friday.

Currently, Kosovo is under EU measures because of operations in the north, and funds have been blocked as a result.

Lajcak's pessimism early in the month

Miroslav Lajcak was in Prague for the global security forum, GLOBSEC 2024, and on a panel discussion there was pessimistic that the Basic Agreement would be implemented.

The Slovak diplomat valued it as the best “ ” this agreement, but stressed that its implementation “as that started”.

Vice President Macron said two days ago in Belgrade that the road has been paved and the road is called the Ohrid Agreement, but what is missing is political will and the two societies are also nearly”, Lajcak declared.

He indicated it was naive to be believed to have its implementation ahead of the February 9th 2025 parliamentary elections in Kosovo.

“We have parliamentary elections in Kosovo in February, so it is naive to believe we can expect progress before the elections. But we must make sure that we see substantial progress under way immediately after the elections”, the European Emissary declared.

In Prolonged Task With Capabilities

After his mandate as an emissary for the dialogue was extended until January 2025, Lajcak began rapidly in trying to normalise Kosovo- Serbia until it is in office.

The EU's Economic Growth Plan is thought to spur Kosovo and Serbia to progress towards implementing the Agreement.

This plan envisions the allocation of a six billion-euro fund for Western Balkan countries for the period 2024-2027, to accelerate the region's European integration. And to have access to these funds, Kosovo and Serbia are conditioned with constructive engagement in dialogue.

Lajcak has said he is the person responsible to make the assessment of progress in the dialogue.

Kosovo could benefit from the Growth Plan a total of about 1 billion euros, which the Government had said would serve in implementing reforms and investment projects.

Lajcak's mandate as special representative for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia that would regularly end in the autumn was extended until January 2025 EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell had appointed Slovak to this challenge in 2020.

After four years, the result is not positive. Relations between the two countries have only deteriorated, with tensions escalating into violence.

Before leaving that position, however, Lajcak seems to make an effort to succeed in his difficult task.

The current US administration is also trying to push through implementation until this state will have presidential elections on November 5th. Evental changes there change access to Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.