Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti agreed on Saturday 18 March on the implementation of the agreement on the path to the normalisation of relations between their two countries, without officially signing it.
“After 12 hours [of meetings], we have a deal, we have an agreement on how to do it”, announced the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
He said that the Implementation Annex of the agreement meant there were practical steps on what should be done, when it should be done, by whom and how. “It is often said that the devil is in the details, well sometimes the devil is in the calendar, in the schedule, in the timing”, he explained. However, the Annex does not include a specific implementation date.
“As part of the Annex, the Parties have fully committed to honour all Articles of the Agreement, and implement all their respective obligations expediently and in good faith”, said Borrell, whilst also warning that there would be consequences for non-compliance.
Mr Kurti said that it was now up to the EU to “find a mechanism to make this agreement legally and internationally binding”.
The High Representative acknowledged that the agreement was based on a less ambitious and less detailed proposal than the one which had been initially presented. “The parties could not reach an agreement on this detailed proposal. This was on the one hand, because I think that one party, Kosovo, lacked flexibility on the substance, and on the other hand because [of] Serbia’s previously stated principles not to sign although they were fully ready to implement”, he explained.
By virtue of the Annex, the Parties have acknowledged that the Agreement and the Implementation Annex will form an integral part of their EU accession processes. The European Union will therefore immediately start work to formally include the relevant amendments in the EU’s negotiating framework for Serbia and in the agenda of Kosovo’s Special Group on Normalisation, according to Borrell.
Furthermore, Pristina agreed to immediately launch negotiations within the framework of the EU-facilitated Dialogue on establishing specific arrangements and guarantees to ensure an appropriate level of self-management for the Serbian community in Kosovo.
Both sides have also agreed to urgently endorse the Declaration on Missing Persons, as negotiated under the Dialogue.
In order to implement Article 9 of the agreement on financial support and an investment programme for the two countries, the EU commits to organising a donor conference within 150 days. “No disbursement will happen before the EU determines that all provisions of the Agreement have been fully implemented”, the document warns.
See Annex: https://aeur.eu/f/5wc (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)