Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue likely to resume in June

English

Gazeta Express

29/04/2021 15:14

Kosovo Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, said Thursday that a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as part of the EU-facilitated Dialogue in Brussels is likely to happen in June. He made the comments after meeting the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell in Brussels.

Kurti who took office as new prime minister of Kosovo on 23 March, said that initially his Government will approve a program, coordinate with the opposition parties and his Cabinet wants to get additional information from Brussels on the Dialogue process so far.

“We need additional information and documents regarding the agreements reached so far to prepare. At the same time, during May, we will meet opposition parties in Kosovo to have a principled and well-prepared dialogue, because we do not want to make mistakes,” Kurti said. He said that the Dialogue is likely to resume in June. “Sometime in June we might have beginning of a new chapter of the dialogue,” Kurti told media in Brussels.  

The EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, told Kurti that the Dialogue has no alternative. He said that no date has been set for a Kurti-Vucic meeting, adding that they agreed the Dialogue process to continue.

“European path of Kosovo goes through this dialogue. There is no other path. There is no other alternative. Reaching an agreement on normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia is the only way to get the European perspective. Therefore, I encouraged Mr. Kurti to involve in this issue,” Borrell stated adding that the Dialogue was one of the most important issues discussed with Kosovo Prime Minister.  

Borrell and Kurti were asked to comment publication of a “non paper” by media consisting of some ideas on how a final agreement between Kosovo and Serbia should look like. Borrell said that these documents are irrelevant. “I do not work with ‘non papers’. To me these phantom documents are irrelevant and I can express my concern that these documents and fake news which are circulating have nothing to do with us,” Borrell said. “I want to deny at the strongest terms, because fake news are creating a toxic environment on various issues, including the Dialogue issue, which needs to be continued,” Borrell stated.  

Kosovo PM Kurti said that the best answer to these leaked documents is to not comment at all. “I do not believe in solutions seeing the region only from the geographic or demographic point of view, without security, economy, without citizens of respective republics,” Kurti said. /GazetaExpress/