According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Serbia and Kosovo have come close to resolving their relations. “We have an agreement,” said the top diplomat late in the evening, after twelve hours of marathon negotiations in Ohrid, in northern Macedonia, on the lake of the same name.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, mediated by Borrell, reached a broad agreement on the implementation of an agreement aimed at putting relations between the two hostile Balkan countries on a new basis.
Seemingly minimal variant
At the same time, however, the two sides did not follow the “most ambitious ideas” of the EU mediators, Borrell told media in Ohrid. He did not address differences in content. Work will continue “until a comprehensive agreement is reached,” he added.
Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, broke away from Serbia in 1999 with NATO help and declared its independence in 2008. To this day, Serbia has not recognized this.
acknowledgment instead of acknowledgment
Under the new agreement, Belgrade will not recognize Kosovo under international law, but will recognize the statehood of its former province. In particular, Serbia must recognize Kosovo’s passports, license plates and customs documents, which it has not done to date. Kosovo, in turn, should institutionally guarantee the rights of ethnic Serbs in the country.
In a first meeting on February 27, the two sides verbally approved the draft agreement that the EU had put forward based on a Franco-German proposal.