Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Monday accused the European Union’s (EU) Special Envoy for Normalization Talks with Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, of not being neutral and of conspiring with Belgrade against Pristina.
Albin Kurti accused Miroslav Lajcak of coordinating with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic regarding the EU-mediated talks held in Brussels last week.
EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell, who oversaw the talks in Brussels, attributed the latest breakdown in negotiations to Kurti’s insistence that Serbia recognize his country before further progress is made in implementing the February deal.
Borrell warned that a lack of progress could damage Serbia and Kosovo’s hopes of joining the EU.
Serbia and the former province of Kosovo have been at loggerheads for decades.
The 1998-1999 war – which ended after a 78-day NATO bombardment forced the withdrawal of the Serbian army and police from Kosovo – left more than 10,000 dead, most of them Kosovo Albanians.
In 2008, Kosovo declared independence, an initiative that Belgrade refused to recognize.
In February, the EU presented a ten-point plan to end months of political crises. This plan received the approval of the parties, albeit with reservations that have not yet been resolved.
This Monday, Kurti said that Kosovo has presented a proposal for the implementation of the agreement reached in February.
However, Serbia has never submitted a proposal and maintains its reservations about the documents under negotiation and the neutrality of the mediators.
“We don’t need an envoy who is so one-sided or so neutral that it violates the basic agreement. But that is what is happening with Envoy Lajcak,” the Kosovo prime minister denounced.
Kurti also criticized Borrell and Lajcak as representatives of the EU for failing to respond to what he described as Serbia’s continued violation of the February agreement with statements against Kosovo.
In August, members of Congress from the United States – the other diplomatic power in the process – warned that negotiators were not putting enough pressure on the Serbian leader.
In May, a dispute over the validity of local elections in the northern part of Kosovo, dominated by the Serb minority, clashed with security forces, including NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers working there, wounding 93 soldiers hit.
Source: DN
