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Hello! In 3 minutes is a newsletter of Radio Free Europe, where we try to break down the most important developments and bring them to you as simply as possible, briefly and in Albanian.
For almost nine months, the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia went to Brussels only once for talks - and did not meet each other. The parties exchange accusations for non-implementation of the agreements reached, but who is to blame for the process of normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations being stalled?
The recently held meetings in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, whether at the high level or at that of the chief negotiators, have a common denominator: the conclusion without concrete results.
The parties, who have been in dialogue since 2011 under the mediation of the European Union, constantly blame each other for non-implementation of existing agreements or for the failure of the dialogue, while the EU has emphasized that there is a lack of political will to implement the agreements.
Kosovo and Serbia also have different opinions on the completion of the normalization process. Kosovo requires mutual recognition, while Serbia wants a compromise where "no party will be absolute winners or absolute losers".
The last agreement that the parties reached, in 2023, was the one on the path towards the normalization of relations - also known as the Ohrid Agreement - which Brussels considers a great achievement.
This agreement - which has not been signed due to Serbia's rejection - also foresees a level of self-management for the Serbian community in Kosovo, as well as the mutual recognition of state symbols. It asks Pristina and Belgrade to also implement all the agreements reached earlier, including the one on the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, the establishment of which Serbia insistently seeks, while Kosovo has so far rejected.
"From normalization to crisis management"
Toby Vogel from the Council for Democratization Policies in Brussels, tells Radio Free Europe that the dialogue has not been successful for many years, as, according to him, the focus has shifted from reaching a legally binding agreement on normalization to crisis management. , which separately broke last year.
He puts the blame for the stagnation in the dialogue on all three parties.
"The main obstacle comes from Serbia", asserts Vogel, according to whom Belgrade "does not want normalization, because it benefits from the current situation" of insecurity.
But even Kosovo, according to Vogel, is not interested in the dialogue process, because it knows that its European path "will be closed for many years", since normalization has been set as a condition for European integration for both countries. "Both sides are not interested in a solution, right now," says Vogel.
As for the EU, Vogel considers that Brussels has "mismanaged" the dialogue process for years.
While meetings have been held at the level of chief negotiators, the dialogue at the political level was non-existent for almost nine months. From September 14, 2023 to June 26, 2024, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, did not go to Brussels for a round of talks.
For most of last year, tensions were high: from the May protests, in the north, against the new Albanian mayors of the municipalities, to the escalation in Banjska, when a group of armed Serbs, led by Millan Radoiçiëi , attacked the Kosovo Police.
According to Vogel, the events in May, but also the attack in September, should have been a "wake-up call" in the EU, for changing the approach to dialogue.
Vogel says that, even after Banjska, Serbia has continued not to face pressure, at least not publicly from the EU, while the punitive measures imposed due to tensions in the north are still in force against Kosovo.
Kurt's terms for dialogue
In the last round of dialogue, on June 26, although a meeting between Kurti and Vuçi had been announced, to discuss the Ohrid Agreement, the EU said that the Kosovar prime minister refused to sit at a table with the Serbian president, as well as set three conditions for further engagement in the process.
Kurti demanded that the parties sign the Ohrid Agreement, withdraw a letter dated December 13, 2023 by the former Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Bërnabië - in which Serbia says that it will not implement some parts of the agreement - as well as hand over Radoiçiçi and the group of from Serbia to the judicial authorities of Kosovo.
Vogel does not qualify last year's pact as an agreement, because, as he says, in Bërnabiç's letter, Serbia admitted that it will not agree to what it means de facto recognition of Kosovo's sovereignty and independence. And the meaning of normalization, according to him, is recognition.
Even the EU said on July 1 that "the logical consequence of normalization would be recognition". This position of the EU, for Vogel, is a signal that the bloc "has accepted that the dialogue is not yielding results".
Vogel sees the conditions set by Kurti as reasonable and considers them as principles, but says that he should have made them public before the parties went to Brussels.
However, the American ambassador in Pristina, Jeff Hovenier, in an interview for Klan Kosovan on July 3, said that he expects Kosovo and Serbia to implement all dialogue agreements "without preconditions" and "with urgency".
Change of brokers
Later this year, the leaders of key institutions are expected to change in the EU. The place of the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, is expected to be taken by the prime minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, while it is not yet known who will come to the place of the dialogue emissary, Miroslav Lajçak.
While Kurti and Vucic are seen as reluctant to normalize relations, Vogel says that with the arrival of Kallas, the atmosphere in the dialogue will change, but Serbia must also get ready to face a little more pressure from the EU./ REL
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