Pristina and Brussels prepare a strike in Belgrade

Hoti and Vučić, Photo: Illustration

Pristina’s refusal to speak about the Union of Serbian Municipalities also questioned the meeting between President Aleksandar Vučić and the Acting Prime Minister Kosovo Institutions by Avdulah Hoti, scheduled for September 28 in Brussels.

This move by the Albanian leaders, but also the inaction of the EU, is also interpreted as a deliberate “time out” until the US elections.

The EU’s special envoy for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, announced on Twitter that the negotiators would appear in Brussels on Monday.

The Pristina media reported that Lajcak invited the parties to hold talks, at the level of dialogue coordinators, on Sunday (September 27) and Monday, September 28, while on Tuesday, September 29.

However, the Pristina media claim that the meeting is still uncertain and that the EU has sent invitations to Belgrade and Pristina, but the holding of meetings depends on the response of the two parties.

Miroslav Lajcak, Photo: Tanjug / AP

Dragomir Andjelkovic, a political analyst, believes that by postponing the EU negotiations, he would show that he no longer has any geopolitical capacity, but also the will to tame Pristina.

Albanians still waiting for Biden to win

“The fact is that when the United States got involved in some issues, things were quickly resolved, but it is also a fact that the EU has been working on the Brussels dialogue for years and has achieved nothing in its implementation,” Andjelkovic recalls .
His impression is that nothing is accidental and that Germany and Brussels are cheating Serbia and working for Pristina. If that’s not the case, he says, then it’s about Brussels’ inability to do something.

“Both are bad and undermine the credibility of the EU.” If the EU wants to preserve even the minimum of credibility, it would have to make an effort and force Pristina to implement what it has assumed as an obligation in the Brussels Agreement, “he said Sputnik’s interlocutor.
Andjelkovic points out that if he doesn’t do it now, when the great powers are involved throughout history, that competition will show that the EU is just a “paper tiger” and that it has no influence or importance. According to him, disrupting the negotiating agenda agreed in Brussels could also affect the implementation of the Washington agreement.

A geopolitical history broader than the dialogue itself

“I appreciate that both the Albanians and the EU are buying time by playing the Biden card. They still believe that Biden will win and that if that happens he will support Germany and leave the Kosovo issue to her. That is why it is not ruled out that this change of Pristina, and the non-reaction of the EU, is directed against Trump, in favor of Biden. Because this is a geopolitical game much broader than the relationship between Belgrade and Pristina, “says Andjelkovic.

Avdulah Hoti, Photo: Tanjug / AP

Bojan Milisavljevic, a professor at Belgrade Law School, says that postponing the meeting is a common thing, but also that SSO is no longer a priority for anyone other than Belgrade.

“It seems to me that the Brussels agreement, which is in force, and which is not being implemented or fulfilled, is taking a backseat after this Washington agreement. That is why I believe that the JCC is no longer in the spotlight neither in the EU nor in Pristina, ”says Milisavljevic.

He believes that our part should also be aware of the fact that the JCC is no longer in the foreground, because other issues are in the spotlight.

ZSO is not a priority for anyone except Belgrade

“The community of Serbian municipalities is, so to speak, a question of status, and the negotiations have shifted towards economic issues and easier to agree,” he said.

Milisavljevic says that the EU has had mechanisms before to force Pristina to form the JCC and therefore does not attach much importance to the words of EU spokesman Peter Stan that Pristina must assume the international obligation to implement the JCC.

“What they say does not necessarily mean that they really want it and are working on it, because they have had years to work on it. So I don’t believe in the sincerity of those words at the moment,” says Professor Milisavljević.
According to the media, the EU told Pristina that it could not “choose what to negotiate and what not to”, because it has already agreed on the agreed agenda, which includes talks on the implementation of all the unimplemented agreements of the Brussels Agreement. On the other hand, Belgrade is determined that if there are no talks on the JCC, there will be no negotiations.

The EU is strong in words but not in deeds

As a reminder, an expert-level meeting was held on September 17, in which the Kosovo delegation “categorically refused” to discuss the JCC.

The European side then accepted that the experts discuss finances and property first, and that the SSO be debated “in the next few days”, that is, before the meeting scheduled for September 28. Since Pristina has said that there will be no talks on the JCC, there may not be an expert-level meeting this week, so a leaders meeting is unlikely to be held on September 28.