EURACTIV.com with AFP, Apr 30, 2019
Kosovo and Serbia have agreed at a summit in Berlin to resume talks, after the leaders of France and Germany warned the bitter foes that resolving their dispute was crucial to future ties with the European Union.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the working dinner for the neighbours whose relationship has taken a turn for the worse in recent months.
Macron and Merkel try to resurrect Serbia-Kosovo talks at Berlin summit
European leaders will try to bring bitter foes Serbia and Kosovo back to the negotiating table at a regional summit in Berlin on Monday (29 April), hoping to reboot a dialogue over one of the Balkans’ thorniest disputes.
Late Monday (29 April), Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said they had agreed to meet again in Paris in early July.
Merkel earlier said the recent breakthrough in a long-running conflict between Greece and Macedonia over the smaller country’s name could serve as a model for resolving Serbia and Kosovo’s thorny dispute.
“We agreed to this joint initiative because we are committed to the European perspective of the Western Balkans countries,” said Merkel, flanked by Macron, referring to the prospect of closer relations with the EU bloc.
“It is in Europe’s interest that there is positive development in this region.”
Also present at the summit were the leaders of EU members Croatia and Slovenia, and other Western Balkans leaders.
Macron and Merkel stressed that EU membership prospects were not on the agenda in Berlin but remained in the hands of the European Commission.
“Rather, this is about a policy of stability that we want for the region,” the French leader said.
Risky business
The Macron-Merkel meeting, also attended by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini, comes after EU-brokered talks between Serbia and Kosovo ground to a halt last year.
The nub of the dispute is Belgrade’s denial of the independence of Kosovo, a former province of deep historical and cultural significance to Serbians that broke away in a bloody 1998-1999 war.
The Brussels-led dialogue collapsed several months after talk of possible border changes between the neighbours triggered a stinging backlash last summer.
Kosovo President and PM at odds over Serbia border changes
Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on Wednesday (6 February) resumed their public dispute over possible border changes to end one of Europe’s most volatile territorial disputes.
Critics warned that redrawing the map would be risky business in the fragile Balkans, a region still recovering from its brutal 1990s wars.
Then came a series of diplomatic clashes between Pristina and Belgrade that deepened the hostility, in particular Kosovo’s decision in November to levy a 100-percent tariff on Serbian goods.
Kosovo hits Serbia, Bosnia with 100% customs fees after Interpol snub
Kosovo on Wednesday (21 November) raised customs tariffs on Serbian and Bosnian goods from 10 to 100% after Serbia blocked its former province from joining Interpol, the international police organisation.
A stalemate ensued.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj says he will keep the tax until Belgrade shows openness to recognising independence.
Meanwhile Vučić maintained that lifting the tariff was a condition for any dialogue.
“The conclusion is to continue the discussion, I suppose in a smaller format, with the intermediation of the EU, Germany and France (…) to try to find the solution that would allow us to resume the dialogue,” he told Serbian and Balkan media.
“Serbia had no other conditions than the repeal of taxes.”
Normalising ties with Kosovo and harmonising its foreign policy with that of the EU, are among key criteria Serbia has to meet to join the bloc.
While the exact details of any border plan have never been laid out, local media and analysts assume the land swap would see Kosovo’s Serb-dominated north traded for a southern valley in Serbia that is mainly ethnic-Albanian, as is the rest of Kosovo.
Serbia foreign minister: We want border demarcation with Kosovo
Serbia’s official position in the dialogue with Kosovo is to go for a border demarcation along ethnic lines between Belgrade and its former province, Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić has said without elaborating further. Dačić’s statement was met with protests in both Belgrade and Priština.
‘Import instability’
The United States and some EU officials appeared open to discussing such a deal. But Germany has been one of the clearest critics of any border changes, which many worry would further segregate the region along ethnic lines.
European Union enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, who oversees bids to join the bloc, said binding Balkan countries closer to the EU was key to keeping the peace.
“Either we export stability or we import instability,” he told German business daily Handelsblatt.
Thaçi earlier insisted on his Facebook page that he was committed to resolving the long-running conflict.
“For us, our neighbours and the EU, an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is vital for moving forward,” he said.
“We have the support of the EU, the United States and the whole world to reach a peaceful, final and comprehensive agreement with Serbia. We are ready to resume the dialogue in Brussels.”
For a peaceful border correction between Kosovo and Serbia
The peaceful border correction with Serbia is an opportunity for mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia that should not be missed, writes Hashim Thaçi.
But while Thaçi is in favour of revoking the tariff, his prime minister Haradinaj has been intransigent despite heavy EU and US pressure.
“No tax will be revoked either at this summit or at any other summit,” Haradinaj reiterated last week.
Kosovo president sees Washington as key to solve conflict with Serbia
BERLIN (Reuters) – The United States is key to settling the ongoing conflict between Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said on Monday, pointing to the inability of major European countries to reach a unified position on the issue.
The former Serb and predominantly ethnic Albanian republic of Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, almost a decade after a bloody war there.
It won recognition from the United States and most EU countries, but not from Serbia or its big power patron Russia, and relations between Belgrade and Kosovo remain tense.
“Without the U.S. we can never have any dialogue, negotiations or any agreement”, Thaci told Reuters TV in Berlin, adding: “The EU is not united in this process”.
Thaci was in Berlin to join a summit later on Monday on the Western Balkans, called by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Thaci played down the expectations for the Berlin meeting saying: “I will not expect any miracle.”
It is crucial for Serbia to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, Thaci said.
“We will ask today Chancellor Merkel and President Macron to convince (Serb) President (Aleksandar) Vucic to recognize Kosovo”, Thaci said, adding that if that does not happen, “I think the meeting in Berlin will not be useful.”
Thaci stressed that Serbia tended to orient itself towards Russia but Kosovo wanted to be part of NATO and the European Union as soon as possible.
Mogherini held a series of bilateral meetings with the Western Balkans’ leaders
By EWB, 29.04.2019
BERLIN – The EU High Representative Federica Mogherini held a series of bilateral meetings with the Western Balkans’ leaders in Berlin this afternoon.
Ahead of a meeting organised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Mogherini met with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Zvizdić, President and Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and Ana Brnabić, President of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi of Kosovo. She also met with Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and with the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović.
In these bilateral discussions, the High Representative and the leaders discussed the situation in the region and reaffirmed the importance and the commitment to regional cooperation, good neighbourly relations and reconciliation, where the Prespa agreement was set as a historical example. In addition, they also discussed the progress and future perspectives on their respective paths towards the EU.