European Union Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajčák reported “very limited progress” in the talks held between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti on Monday, 19 July.
“The meeting was difficult, and it demonstrated very different approaches of the two parties to the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia,” he stated after the meeting, over which he and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell had presided. The only progress he mentioned concerns the Serb and Kosovar leaders’ commitment to continue the dialogue facilitated by the EU “on a monthly basis” and to meet again in September.
Among the topics discussed were efforts aiming to identify people who went missing during the 1998–1999 Kosovo War as well as the parties’ commitment to refrain from any initiatives that could destabilise the situation on the ground.
Mr Vučić lambasted the Kosovar request to consider Serbia responsible for several genocides against Albanians in Kosovo, according to the website Balkan Insight. Mr Kurti criticised the Serbs’ refusal to lift trade barriers imposed on Kosovo.
“For us, the European Union, it is important to underline that the European future for Serbia and Kosovo depends on the normalisation of their relations,” stressed Mr Lajčák.
Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Mr Borrell had urged both sides to “close the chapter on their painful past through a comprehensive legally binding agreement” aiming to normalise their relations.
The first meeting between Mr Vučić and Mr Kurti at the end of June had already been difficult (see EUROPE 12741/5). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)