Serbia-Kosovo agreement fails despite EU involvement

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks to the media after holding meetings as part of the Kosovo-Serbia talks in Ohrid on March 18, 2023. The Prime Minister of Kosovo and the Serbian President held talks at a meeting chaired by the EU's foreign policy chief, aimed at normalising relations between the two countries. AFP - ARMEND NIMANI

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Long negotiations, but no signing of the agreement on the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Belgrade and Pristina met on Saturday 18 March in North Macedonia for new discussions on the peace plan proposed by the European Union to stabilise the Balkan region. A mixed picture, since Josep Borell, the head of EU diplomacy, still welcomed progress between the former enemies.

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With our correspondent in Brussels, Laure Broulard

Brussels wanted Belgrade and Pristina to agree on an annex to a European peace plan unveiled last month aimed at normalising relations between Serbia and its former province.

The text also proposes that both sides should no longer use violence to resolve their differences and that Serbia should not oppose Kosovo's membership of an international organisation.

At the end of 12 hours of negotiations, the head of European diplomacy assured that the two parties had accepted the annex, but acknowledged 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 normalisation of relations

The parties have fully committed to honour 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 Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, it is Belgrade that is responsible for the lack of signature, this Saturday, as in 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 relativized the importance of the meeting: "It was not a D-Day, just an OK day," he declared.

In Belgrade, thousands of people demonstrated Friday at the call of nationalist parties to refuse an agreement that they said would amount to a "capitulation".

► Read also An agreement in sight for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia?

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• European Union
• Serbia
• Kosovo
• Josep Borrell
• Aleksandar Vucic