EU expects Hoti appoint Kosovo chief negotiator

Gazeta Express

04/06/2020 14:29

The European Union wants Kosovo and Serbia resume the dialogue as soon as possible aimed at reaching a comprehensive final agreement.

This was stated on Thursday by an EU senior official who said the EU also expects new government of Kosovo led by Avdullah Hoti to appoint a chief negotiator and a team in dialogue with Serbia. The EU says that it is up to Kosovo to decide who would represent them and the EU decides who represents them in facilitating Pristina-Belgrade talks. The EU’s position comes after Kosovo president Hashim Thaci said that he would not attend a dialogue process facilitated by EU special representative, Miroslav Lajcak.

In March 2020, former Slovakian diplomat has been appointed as EU’s special representative in Dialogue, and has already established contacts with many Kosovo officials, but not with president Thaci who avoids contacts with Lajcak saying that “it is busy dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The EU in its new approach towards the dialogue wants to be more results oriented and not an ambiguous approach as it was the case until now. Many sources within the EU says that the land swap idea, is no longer in the negotiations table, because goes against EU values and is followed with displacement of people along ethnic lines.

The EU insists a potential agreement between Kosovo and Serbia should be acceptable to the EU, and in compliance with the international law and have positive and stabilising effect in the region.

EU sources say the special representative Miroslav Lajcak is planning to visit Pristina and Belgrade soon, to establish personal contacts with partners, to resume the dialogue. The Dialogue is expected to be held in Brussels.

The EU welcomes the role of the United States in the dialogue. The EU officials say the US had role in the dialogue in the past and has an irreplaceable role in the region, along with the EU. /GazetaExpress/