A scheduled meeting between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo aimed at renewing of the process of talks on the normalization of relations between the two countries failed to take place in Brussels on June 26 amid continued signs of animosity on both sides.
Although it had been confirmed there would be a new round, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic only met with their European counterparts.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was to host the Kurti-Vucic meeting, confirmed that "no progress in implementation of the agreement could be achieved."
These efforts will continue next week, Borrell said, when he will again try to host the two negotiators in Brussels.
Borrell said the EU would "continue putting all our efforts and capacity at the service of the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia."
Vucic blamed Kurti for the talks failing to take place, saying his counterpart "didn't want to see me."
Kurti presented three conditions for further engagement in the broader normalization process, including the formalization of the Basic Agreement through the signatures of the respective heads of state and government and the handing over Milan Radoicic and his paramilitary-terrorist group to Kosovo’s judicial authorities.
Kurti said the conditions he presented were "guarantees of good faith and goodwill that would enable the implementation of the agreement."
Kosovo wants Serbia to turn over Radoicic, who is considered the mastermind of an attack in northern Kosovo on September 24, 2023, by armed ethnic Serbs on a Kosovo police patrol, killing one of the officers.
Borrell said Serbia was not ready to fully meet Kosovo’s conditions citing constitutional constraints, while Vucic indicated he was ready to explore options in formalizing the agreement in line with past dialogue practice.
“The parties’ positions remain far apart on how implementation of the agreement could be launched -- and consequently how the normalization process should continue. As I said before, the EU cannot alone want normalization of relations if the parties themselves cannot agree how to move forward,” said Borrell at the end of the meeting.
Serbia has never acknowledged Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. In the late 1990s a NATO intervention against Belgrade ended fighting between Kosovo and Serbia that claimed some 10,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians.
There were never high expectations for the June 26 meeting. The European Union wanted to organize the round to renew the talks that appear to many observers to be on life support. The last time leaders met was in September 2023.
Borrell said that despite coming changes in the EU leadership -- he is due to leave office in the autumn -- the obligations for Serbia and Kosovo remain the same.
“In a few months’ time, there will be different people, different names in our jobs, but the agreements, the council conclusions and the European Union’s expectations will not change. The member states will not change. The commitments and obligations of Kosovo and Serbia will not go away. Everyone will still be looking at the capacity and willingness of the Serbian president and Kosovo prime minister to deliver a better, European future for their people,” Borrell said ahead of the talks.
“Normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia is at the heart of the European Union’s engagement in the Western Balkans,” he added.