euractiv.com <https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement-neighbourhood/news/eu-pressure-fails-to-break-kosovo-serbia-deadlock/>
EU pressure fails to break Kosovo-Serbia deadlock admin 4–5 minutes _____ A group of EU leaders on Thursday (26 October) failed to convince Kosovo and Serbia to make a breakthrough in the protracted push to normalise ties. Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic came for separate talks with top EU officials and the leaders of France, Germany and Italy at the sidelines of a regular EU summit in Brussels. After the meeting, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said a proposal was put on the table to overcome a key stumbling block on establishing an association of municipalities of Serbian majority in the north of Kosovo. “Unhappily, the parties were not ready to agree on that without preconditions that were unacceptable to the other party,” Borrell said. “We will continue insisting and working to get an agreement,” he added. The two Balkan leaders blamed each other for the failure of the talks. “Despite this generous offer by Prime Minister Kurti, the President of Serbia, Vucic, has refused to sign an agreement with Kosovo,” Kurti’s office said. Vucic, in turn, said he was “ready to sign whatever you want except Kosovo’s presence in the UN and the issue of Kosovo’s independence”. While the talks were inconclusive, Borrell said another meeting could be organised soon. “The work is ongoing (…) maybe we should leave the EU summit and sit down again with the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia and see if we can find some solution through dialogue. There is no other choice. The European path of Kosovo and Serbia passes through this dialogue,” Borrell told reporters. EU leaders are expected to briefly discuss the situation in Serbia-Kosovo on Friday (27 October) and are expected to say in their summit communiqué they “regret the lack of implementation by both Parties of the Agreement on the path to normalisation and its Implementation Annex as well as other agreements reached in the EU-facilitated dialogue”. “Kosovo and Serbia must pursue sustained de-escalation efforts, as well as ensure the holding of new elections in the north of Kosovo as soon as possible, with the active participation of Kosovo Serbs,” EU leaders will say, according to the latest draft summit conclusions, seen by Euractiv. “Failure to de-escalate the tensions will have consequences,” EU leaders will stress. They will also “call on Kosovo and Serbia to implement them, without delay or preconditions. This includes the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb Majority Municipalities”. “Normalisation of relations is an essential condition on the European path of both Parties and both risk losing important opportunities in the absence of progress,” EU leaders will state. Brussels has been trying for years to resolve the long-running dispute between the two Balkan neighbours that has intensified since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The EU believed it had broken the deadlock by hammering out a plan to normalise ties in March <https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement-neighbourhood/news/serbia-kosovo-gentlemens-agreement-on-eu-backed-deal-unpacked/> , but there has been no progress since then. Kosovo had insisted it wants Serbia to make the first move by taking steps towards officially recognising its independence, while Belgrade wants progress first on the deal to create an association of 10 Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo. Tensions between Pristina and Belgrade surged after a police officer was killed last month in what the EU called a “terrorist attack” in Kosovo’s restive north by Serb paramilitaries. Kosovo maintains Serbia was behind the attack, something Serbia denies. That followed months of increased tensions in north Kosovo after Kosovo Serbs resigned en masse from all state and government institutions, boycotted elections to replace them, and then protested elected ethnic Albanian mayors from taking office, resulting in protests and violence injuring some 30 NATO KFOR officers, journalists, police, and citizens. Kosovo, which counts 120,000 Serbs among its 1.8 million people, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, in a move Belgrade has never recognised. [Edited by Alice Taylor] Read more with EURACTIV -- http:www.antic.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SERBIAN NEWS NETWORK" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/senet/0b0801da08ad%24784baa00%2468e2fe00%24%40gmail.com.
