It will be the first visit of a French president in Serbia since that of Jacques Chirac in 2001, in the Balkans where France remained little present. Emmanuel Macron travels to Belgrade on Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 July with the goal, according to Paris, of "renewing ties" with Serbia, after several snags in recent years.

One of the main themes should be relations with Kosovo, the former Serbian province with an Albanian majority that became independent in 2008, without Belgrade or Moscow recognizing this sovereignty. Tensions increased with the application by Kosovo at the end of 2018 of 100% customs duties on Serbian products.

The dialogue on the normalization of Serbia-Kosovo relations, conducted under the auspices of the European Union, has been stalled for months.

The possibility of attempting to settle the conflict through an exchange of territories remains unresolved. Paris is open there, unlike Berlin, which is afraid of reopening Pandora's box of nationalisms.

Missed French protocol

Another delicate subject is Serbia's application for membership of the EU, on which Paris remains cautious. "The President of the Republic supports the European perspective of the Balkans, but also said that this accession would take place when the EU has previously reformed, which is very well understood by the Serbs", according to the Elysee, for whom the EU, slowed by its difficult functioning at 28, is currently unable to absorb further enlargement.

Paris and Belgrade must also overcome the malaise created by a lack of French protocol during the ceremony of 11 November, which outraged Serbia. President Aleksandar Vucic was placed in a secondary gallery, while Hashim Thaçi, President of Kosovo, was sitting in the main stand with Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Another dispute is the refusal in April 2017 by the French justice system to deliver Ramush Haradinaj, the current Prime Minister of Kosovo, who has been demanded by the Serbian justice system to accuse him of war crimes during the Kosovo conflict.

Chinese presence

In this context, Emmanuel Macron is to inaugurate a monument to Franco-Serbian friendship in a park in the center of Belgrade, whose inscription "Let's love France as she loved us" was stained with black paint in December.

This disenchantment is accompanied by weak economic ties, even though Vinci recently won the Belgrade airport concession and Alstom remains in the running for the Belgrade metro project. But the French group, whose leaders will be part of the French delegation, is now in competition with a Chinese consortium.

The Balkans are an important part of the "New Silk Roads", China's mega-project to develop its global economic power. For six years, the Chinese have been active, offering low interest loans and rivaling European companies. Between 2007 and 2017, Beijing announced a total of 12 billion euros of loans in the countries of the region, of which one third for Serbia.

With AFP