[ad_1]
Almost a decade ago, the European Union started a dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo. The end of the process is not yet in sight, although some, as the district table of the Aspen Institute in Berlin shows, are slightly optimistic, writes DW.
Almost ten years of negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo on the normalization of relations, with more than modest results. That is why the citizens of both countries no longer believe in this process. “People just no longer believe there will be any progress,” was heard at the virtual round table of the Aspen Institute in Berlin on “The future of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina”, which brought together interesting interlocutors such as Miroslav Lajcak, special envoy of the EU for negotiations. Serbia and Kosovo, and Suzanne Schitz, director of the department for Southeast Europe at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sonja Licht, President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, and Naim Rashiti, Executive Director of the Balkan Policy Research Group (BPRG) in Pristina, participated in the discussion.
Prepare people for commitments
During the presentation, the participants highlighted the need for greater participation by civil society and independent media in monitoring and working on the process of normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. The absence of these actors in the process so far has led to this situation in which confidence in the outcome of the negotiations is so low. Political instabilities in the region itself, especially in Kosovo, certainly don’t help.
In the discussion from which he was allowed to report, but without citing a specific source of information, something called “the elephant in the room” was openly discussed, and that is the issue of mutual recognition of Serbia and Kosovo. “It is clear to everyone that without that it will not be possible to reach a final agreement”, it was said in the virtual discussion and it was concluded that “everyone in Belgrade knows it”. “People must be prepared for the final result, which will be full of compromises,” he concluded.
Optimism and pessimism
It should also be clear to Kosovo Serbs that the agreement will bring Kosovo closer to the process of rapprochement with the European Union, which is “a good thing for their security”.
And about how far we are, almost ten years after the opening of the negotiations, from the final agreement, the opinions among the participants in the discussion are different: since the conclusion that the negotiations have again reached a dead end, the that could delay the final agreement again, until the valuation to divide us on the final “deal”, “not years, but months”. But even the optimists eventually admitted that the negotiations were taking too long and that they were “diluted” to such an extent that citizens no longer recognized them.
Don’t look for answers on the other side of the Atlantic
But there was consensus among the interlocutors on one issue: the dialogue process has no alternative. Because, frozen conflicts can always flare up, as the last conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh proved. However, and this was instructed once again to the negotiating actors, the way out should not be sought in any way in a solution called the exchange of territories.
Neither should a solution and an answer be sought from the other side of the Atlantic. “You can sign an agreement with whoever you want and wherever you want, but the decision to approach the European Union can only be made by the European Union,” was the reaction to the latest news from Washington that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has expressed their desire to re-enter the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, but on both occasions not with the aim of reaching economic agreements, but political ones. “Vučić and Hoti are aware that negotiations within the EU have no alternative,” concluded in the virtual discussion of the Aspen Institute.
[ad_2]
