Borrell: Kurti rejected, Vucic accepted new proposal

“Today I tried with Kurti and Vucic to find solutions on way forward based on our proposals. Unfortunately, Kurti was not prepared to move forward on the establishment of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities (CSM) insisting on de facto recognition as the first step,” he told reporters in Brussels following a meeting with Vucic and Kurti. He added that the Serbian president accepted the proposal.

“It was not possible to bridge differences today,” he said and added Thursday’s meeting focused on the agreement reached in Ohrid which is the key to taking the normalization process forward. “Implementation has not started and this speaks to the absence of commitment by the parties for normalization,” he added.

Borrell said that he and Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak proposed what they see as only possible compromise today: “Work in parallel on implementation which would ensure that you get something once something is fulfilled”.

Borrell said that the EU and wider international community, including the US, “sees this as the only realistic way implementation can work”. “Both sides need guarantees that their actions will be rewarded by counteractions by the other party,” the EU’s top diplomat said.

Borrell warned that both Kosovo and Serbia are in direct and serious violation of their dialogue obligations. He said that Belgrade and Pristina started from opposite ends with Kurti wanting to tackle political aspects first while Belgrade wants to start with the CSM before engaging on its obligations.

He also warned that escalation will loom over implementation and normalization if there is no progress on new elections and added that the EU sees the resignations of the ethnic Albanian mayors of Serb-majority municipalities as the best solution with the Kosovo Serbs expected to take part in new local elections. Borrell said that he received assurances of that from Vucic.

“I am sorry to say we are running out of time. At the end of the day, those who suffer most because of the inability of their leaders to stay true to their words are the citizens,” he said, adding that this is particularly worrying at a moment when EU is moving forward on enlargement.

The Path for both Kosovo and Serbia goes through the dialogue. Without normalization there will be no European future for Kosovo or Serbia. They risk being left behind,” Borrell said.