Long negotiations, but no signing of the agreement on the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Belgrade and Pristina met on Saturday March 18 in North Macedonia for new discussions on the peace plan proposed by the European Union to stabilize the Balkan region. A mixed record, since Josep Borell, the head of EU diplomacy, nevertheless welcomed progress between the former enemies.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Laure Broulard
Brussels wanted Belgrade and Pristina to agree to an annex to a European peace plan unveiled last month aimed at normalizing relations between Serbia and its former province.
The text also proposes that the two camps no longer use violence to resolve their differences and that Serbia does not oppose Kosovo’s membership of an international organization.
After 12 hours of negotiations, the head of European diplomacy assured that the two parties had accepted the annex, but recognized that they had gone less far than hoped.
We have a deal
Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on the Implementation Annex of the Agreement on the path to normalization of relations
The parties have fully committed to honor all articles of the agreement and implement their respective obligations expediently and in good faith. pic.twitter.com/p3CUBdcd8A
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 18, 2023
For the Kosovar Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, it is Belgrade who is responsible for the absence of signature, this Saturday, as during the previous negotiations in Brussels on February 27 which ended in failure.
We have now reached an agreement on an implementation annex to the Basic Agreement. Serbia—just as in the last meeting in Brussels—avoided signing the Agreement, and now also the Annex. It’s up to the EU to find a mechanism to make the agreement legally & internationally binding.
— Albin Kurti (@albinkurti) March 19, 2023
For his part, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put the importance of the meeting into perspective: “ It wasn’t a D-Day, just an OK day ” did he declare.
In Belgrade, thousands of people demonstrated on Friday at the call of nationalist parties to refuse an agreement which they said would amount to a ” capitulation “.
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