The official re-start of talks in Brussels between Serbia and Kosovo, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed for next week after a German-French facilitated summit in Paris on the dialogue, seen as a precursor to the official restart of talks, did not yield much fruit.
The summit was held via a video conference in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Also online for Friday’s talks were EU foreign policy chief Josep Borell and Miroslav Lajcak, the EU’s special envoy for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
Hoti unveils 5 objectives for Kosovo side
In his speech, Hoti said the dialogue should be guided by the principle that the territorial integrity of Kosovo was non-negotiable, that its constitutional organisation would not be affected and that any agreement with Serbia must fully accord with the Kosovo constitution. Hoti said mutual recognition with Serbia was the only acceptable outcome of the dialogue for Kosovo.
He listed five objectives of the dialogue for the Kosovo side.
“The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia should result in mutual recognition,” Hoti said.
The other outcomes were Kosovo’s recognition by the remaining five EU countries that haven’t done so, UN membership and membership of “other international organisations, and the emergence of a clear opening of the European perspective for Kosovo”.
“Last but not least, missing persons [from the war in the 1990s] and victims of all forms of violence, war damages, casualties, are issues of our utmost concern in this process”, Hoti said.
More than 13,000 people died in the war, mostly Kosovar Albanians, who form a majority in the former province.
“Hard talk”
After the meeting, Serbia’s President said it had been a “hard talk”.
“I said if this is the point of everything they want to talk about, everything is completely meaningless,” Vucic told journalists after the meeting, after he read Kosovo’s requests.
He also announced that the re-start of the dialogue, planned for Sunday, had been postponed for Thursday next week.
“Now everything has changed; we will have a video conference on Sunday, and the continuation of the dialogue is planned for Thursday in Brussels, with the participation of both delegations,” Vucic said.
The meeting came after another initiative to resume talks failed, when a planned meeting in the White House on June 27 was postponed.
This came after the Hague-based Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, SPO, issued an indictment for war crimes against Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who was planning to represent Kosovo at the meeting.
French source: Land swap not part of talks
“There are very difficult perspectives for the outcome of this dialogue, but there is a commitment by everyone to proceed step by step,” said a French presidential official, who asked not to be named.
The French presidential source said territorial exchanges were not part of the talks.
Vucic, who is facing a significant crisis at home after protests over a new coronavirus lockdown in Serbia, warned before the talks he did not expect a smooth ride.
“No one is going to cuddle us or give us a present. On the contrary, we will be pressured to give in. It is not going to be easy,” he said.
Kosovo is now recognised by more than 100 other states but the EU is not unified on the issue, with 22 out of the 27 bloc members recognising its independence.
Test of European leadership
A summit held in Berlin in April 2019 had already failed to restart the talks. But the EU appears newly determined to get the process on track again.
Thaci’s indictment led to the postponement of a White House summit between Serbia and Kosovo due to be held at the end of June.
European officials had bristled at the US initiative, and the new talks are seen as a chance for the bloc to show it still is capable of resolving the conflict.
The French official acknowledged that this issue was a “test of European leadership”, adding that the meeting on Friday had shown that the Europeans were taking the lead.
During the war, Thaci was the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), but prosecutors in The Hague suspect him of being behind nearly 100 murders, as well as numerous cases of persecution and torture.
Thaci, who has denied the charges, has said he would be interviewed by prosecutors in The Hague next week./news agencies-argumentum. al
