Serbia and Kosovo: “We have a deal”

WITHAccording to EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell, Serbia and Kosovo have come close to normalizing their relations. “We have an agreement,” a senior diplomat said late Saturday evening after a twelve-hour marathon of talks in Ohrid, North Macedonia, on the lake of the same name.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, brokered by Borrell, reached a broad agreement to implement an agreement designed to put relations between the two warring Balkan countries on a new footing.

Serbia should take note of Kosovo’s statehood

At the same time, however, both sides did not follow the “more ambitious ideas” of EU mediators, Borrell told reporters in Ohrid. He ignored the differences in content. He added that work would continue “until a comprehensive agreement is reached.”

Kosovo, now populated almost exclusively by Albanians, seceded from Serbia in 1999 with the help of NATO and declared its independence in 2008. So far, Serbia has not recognized this.

Under the new agreement, Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo under international law, but does recognize the statehood of its former province. In particular, it is planned to recognize Kosovo passports, license plates and customs documents, which has not yet been done. Kosovo, in turn, must institutionalize the rights of the Serbian ethnic group in the country.

At the first meeting on February 27, both parties verbally approved the draft agreement presented by the EU on the basis of the Franco-German proposal. On Saturday, both sides reached an extensive agreement on specific deadlines and dates, contained in the annex, for the implementation of individual points of the agreement.

Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine

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