The heads of Serbia and Kosovo have reached this Saturday an agreement for the normalization of bilateral relations after a twelve hour meeting marathon with the mediation of the EU.
“I can announce that Kosovo and Serbia have agreed to the application of the annex to the agreement for the relationship normalization process between the two, between Kosovo and Serbia”, announced the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
Borrell recalled that both Kosovo and Serbia have as strategic objective membership in the EU and for this “Serbia and Kosovo need to normalize their relations”. “This agreement is an important step to make it a reality. We are going to continue working tirelessly until we reach a comprehensive agreement for the normalization of their relations,” Borrell stressed.
The head of EU Diplomacy has stressed that it has been a “protracted and difficult” dialogue, but “in good faith” which has concluded with a commitment by Kosovo to apply “immediately” Article 7 of the agreement for the application of a self-government mechanism for the Kosovo Serb population. “And when I say immediately, I mean immediately,” Borrell stressed.
Likewise, Pristina agrees to apply the declaration on missing persons “urgently”. “I have to admit that from the beginning we raised this issue as a non-negotiable point“, Borrell has indicated, who has highlighted that “several creative proposals have been put forward, both on the signing and on the substance” of the agreement.
“It is clear that the two parties will obtain important benefits from this agreement because the dialogue is not only about Kosovo and Serbia”, but about the “stability“, he argued. “In the current geopolitical context it is an important tool for keeping peace and stability in the Western Balkans region”, he added.
Borrell has met with the President of SerbiaAleksandar Vucic, and with the Kosovar Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, in the town of Ohrid, in North Macedonia.
Vucic has not signed anything new
Vucic, despite the agreement, has stressed that nothing new has been signed and has highlighted the formation of political institutions for the representation of the Serb minority in northern Kosovo.
“I have to say that I am very satisfied with this. There has been talk of missing persons, donor conferences. The plan has to be expanded,” he said.
Vucic has also revealed that the European Council will be in charge of evaluating the progress on the application of the agreement and has highlighted the “constructive atmosphere” of the negotiations. However, he has pointed out that it will already be Monday when he will explain the details of the agreement reached to his compatriots.
“Starting Monday I will receive the representatives of the parliamentary groups. We have serious work ahead of us, for the coming months”, he pointed out in statements collected by the Serbian media.
Belgrade and Pristina have spent decades of negotiations in Brussels with few results and a poor record of implementation of agreements already reached weighed down by the conflicts stemming from the violent secession of Kosovo from Serbia in the late 1990s.