Leaders Of Kosovo, Serbia To Hold Talks In EU Effort To Reboot Dialogue

Kosovo and Serbia are set to resume talks in a video conference hosted by the European Union on July 12, two days after the two sides agreed to move forward with an EU-backed effort to normalize relations between them.

Kosovo and Serbia agreed on July 10 to resume the long-stalled talks after a video summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Whether there is any hope for progress when the two sides meet on July 12 was questionable after statements from Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti issued after the video summit made it clear that they remain far apart.

The video summit had been aimed at setting up the first face-to-face meeting of the Balkans leaders since November 2018 under a EU-backed dialogue process.

The face-to-face meeting had been slated to take place in Brussels on July 12, but it was downgraded to a follow-up videoconference with no reason given. The earliest prospect for in-person talks now appears to be July 16.

In a joint statement after the July 10 talks, France and Germany said that Vucic and Hoti agreed to resume the dialogue and said the two agreed to “deepen cooperation” in various areas to help rebuild trust.

The statement noted that “the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia is extremely important for security and stability in the region and, beyond that, of great significance for the EU membership prospects of both countries.”

Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 in a move rejected by Belgrade. Five of the EU’s 27 countries – Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia, and Spain – also don’t recognize Kosovo’s independence.

EU-mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade broke down in 2018 over reports of a proposed land swap and after Kosovo imposed a 100-percent tax on Serbian imports.

Both Kosovo and Serbia, which aspire to join the EU, have been facing mounting pressure from the West to reboot negotiations.

A German government statement issued after the video summit said that Macron and Merkel encouraged Vucic and Hoti to make substantial progress in negotiations.

Vucic said after the videoconference that the negotiations had been “really tough,” and said he told Macron and Merkel that if Kosovo’s independence “is what they want to talk about, then these talks are completely meaningless.”

The new push comes after prosecutors in The Hague charged Kosovar President Hashim Thaci with war crimes, leading to the postponement of a planned June 27 White House summit between Thaci and his Serbian counterpart.

With reporting by AP