To say that the high-level talks between Kosovo’s PM Albin Kurti and Serbian President Vucic failed to yield any substantial diplomatic results would be an understatement.
“Unfortunately, after quite a long meeting, Prime Minister Kurti was not ready to move forward on … a credible process,” The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Thursday. According to Borrell, Kurti insisted instead on formalizing de facto recognition as “the first step” toward normalization where in fact the starting point is the formation of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities.
”This is why, we proposed what we see as the only possible compromise today – a process that would allow these two to run in parallel. [Instead of working on] one first, [or] the other first, let’s work in parallel. This is the best compromise that we could offer,” said Borrell. In contrast to Kurti’s stance, Borrell noted that “President Vučić accepted the European Union’s proposal for the implementation of the Agreement.”
State Department tells The Pavlovic Today: We are disappointed
According to a State Department spokesperson who talked to The Pavlovic Today following the conclusion of the Brussels meeting between Kurti and Vucic, there is a palpable sense of disappointment surrounding the outcome of these critical talks.
“We are disappointed that progress was not made today,” the spokesperson conveyed.
Still, the Biden Administration is making it unequivocally clear, as they have repeated numerous times, that “the EU-facilitated Dialogue is the only path forward” for Kosovo and Serbia.
We are disappointed that progress was not made today.
State Department spokesperson
The United States is exerting pressure on both involved parties, imploring them to “take their obligations seriously” to fulfilling their obligations outlined in the previously agreed-upon roadmap towards normalization, which was forged earlier this year in Ohrid.
Six months after the Ohrid Agreement , progress has been limited to just three aspects: the Declaration of Missing Persons, the unveiling of the Management Team statute for the Association/Community, and the establishment of the Joint Monitoring Committee. However, the implementation of the most important parts of the agreement has not yet started.Back in May, the Management Team presented the proposal on the statute of the Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities, but since then nothing else has happened.
“Time is running out,” the Department spokesperson urgently asserted.
“We want to see progress on existing and previous obligations under the Dialogue and the Ohrid agreement, including establishing an Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.”
The Pavlovic Today can confirm that the United States is “fully united” with the Quint in support of the EU-facilitated Dialogue.
In light of the current circumstances, the spokesperson disclosed to The Pavlovic Today that the United States will be “consulting internally and with our European partners on next steps.”
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