On Thursday afternoon, the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti sat for the first Time at a table. Both had come to Brussels to the dialogue between the two countries to resume, which had been canceled in November 2018. It was moderated the Meeting by the EU’s high representative for foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the Balkan special envoy Miroslav Lajčák, as a preparatory video conference on Sunday.
Thomas Gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, Nato and the Benelux countries, based in Brussels.
F. A. Z.
“I am pleased to see that the European Union is in the process back in the driver’s seat,” said Borrell to kick off. He called for “a spirit of Compromise and pragmatism”. Fast results are not, of course, expected. Diplomats stressed that the Meeting was only the beginning of a long and difficult process.
The target: a further approach to the EU
As Lajčák after the five-hour-long Meeting told, it was concerned with two issues. The dealing with Missing people, and people who fled the Kosovo war and again returned. On the other, a closer economic cooperation. “I’m glad that both of the leaders after the first exchange of positions ready today, next week intensively at the expert level to continue to work,” said the Slovak Diplomat. The next Meeting of the chiefs was scheduled for the beginning of September in Brussels.
the aim of The “EU-sponsored Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina,” as it is officially called, is a balance of interests of both sides, which enables their further rapprochement with the EU and accession to the EU. Serbia is, since 2012, a candidate for accession, Kosovo is seeking this Status. In the negotiating framework for Serbia has been established in 2014 that both sides need to close up at the conclusion of the accession negotiations, a legally binding agreement to “comprehensive normalization of relations”.
The EU has demanded explicitly that Belgrade recognizes the Republic of Kosovo, but it will have to of the passage of its Constitution to adopt the declared Kosovo to be an integral part of Serbia. This also includes Kosovo, the international organisations can join.
The Dialog, under the leadership of the EU began in 2011 and brought in the first years of good results. So both sides 33 of the agreement, the fixed the technical issues of cooperation, concluded by the trade, telecommunications, and energy to border management. The most important agreements from the April 2013 and August 2015, a autonomy, were the Statute for the majority Serb municipalities in Kosovo. In return, Belgrade finished its then-existing parallel structures in the country.