On Thursday 26 October, alongside the European Council, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić will hold separate meetings with a number of EU27 leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The talks are expected to focus on tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, which have been high for several months and reached a new level on 24 September when a Kosovar policeman was killed by a group of Serbian gunmen (see EUROPE 13257/21).
The Kosovar government believes that Belgrade is involved in the affair, and on 23 October Albin Kurti called on the EU and the United States to set up a special tribunal to try Serbian crimes (see EUROPE 13278/40). For its part, Serbia denied any involvement in the terrorist attack and described the accusations against its Defence Minister, Miloš Vučević, who is suspected by Kosovo of having played a role in the affair, as “completely unfounded”.
As the leaders of the EU27 meet in Brussels on 26 and 27 October, the European Council hopes, according to a version dated 24 October of the draft conclusions obtained by EUROPE, “that the perpetrators will be apprehended and brought swiftly to justice and that Serbia will cooperate fully and take all necessary measures in this regard”.
Discussions should also cover the normalisation of relations between the two countries and the implementation of the Ohrid agreements (see EUROPE 13131/12). On this point, the European Council is expected to express its regret at the lack of progress and call on the two countries to “implement them, without delay or preconditions”. “This includes the creation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities”, the document states.
This issue was made a priority by the Serbian President on 14 September, during separate meetings between the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and Mr Vučić and Mr Kurti. The latter, for his part, felt that political issues, such as the recognition of respective documents and other national symbols, should be settled first (see EUROPE 13251/4). Negotiations therefore remained at a standstill once again, due to the differing positions of the two parties.
Although the European Council’s draft conclusions also state that failure to achieve de-escalation would lead to “consequences”, the issue of potential sanctions against Belgrade - called for by a large section of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13275/20) - is not expected to be central.
“I don’t think it’s time for sanctions. We still need to talk to the governments. There needs to be dialogue, especially as we have negotiations underway for both countries to join the EU”, commented a European diplomatic source.
See the European Council's draft conclusions of October 24: https://aeur.eu/f/99d (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)