The American envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, and the European Union’s special envoy for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak, are expected to visit Pristina and Belgrade this week, Radio Free Europe learns from diplomatic sources in Brussels.
Radio Evropa e Lire has learned from its sources that Escobar and Lajçak will stay in Pristina on Wednesday.
According to these sources, they will make an effort to convince the parties to reach an agreement on overcoming the tensions in the north of Kosovo, as well as on the issue of car plates and Serbian documents.
In the last high-level meeting in Brussels, which was held on August 18, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, did not reach an agreement on these issues.
However, EU sources have said that “they will continue the intensive work in search of a solution” and that “until a solution is reached, they will not consider this round of dialogue as completed”.
In Brussels, diplomats admit that there is room for tensions to increase, which is why they want both sides to be responsible, seek solutions and avoid behaviors that could cause an escalation of the situation.
In the EU, they have repeated that “they do not want to see in Kosovo, the scenes that were seen at the end of July and the beginning of August”.
The fact that Escobar and Lajcak are expected to go together to Belgrade and Pristina is seen as evidence that the EU and the US are working together towards a solution to the issues of Serbian license plates and documents.
The United States has reiterated that it fully supports the process mediated by the European bloc.
Meanwhile, EU officials have thanked the US for its active and constructive role in the search for a solution and in support of the dialogue.
Escobar stayed in Brussels on August 18, when the dialogue between Kurti and Vucic took place.
He met separately with both leaders and Lajcak.
Diplomatic sources in Brussels claim that these days there is increased interest and commitment of some Western leaders to find a solution.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, said after the meeting of the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia that he has time until September 1, although he warned that time “is running out”.
From the meetings of the EU and US special envoys in Pristina and Belgrade, it will depend whether there will be a new meeting within the dialogue in Brussels, and if so, at what level.
Why were there tensions in the north?
The meetings in Brussels were called after local Serbs on July 31 and August 1 set up barricades as a sign of dissatisfaction with the Kosovo Government’s decision to implement two decisions: on Serbian car plates and documents.
Kosovo and Serbia have an agreement on free movement since 2011.
Serbia implemented it immediately.
Kosovo implemented on August 1 – for a few hours – the point for the document for entry/exit and postponed the implementation of the decision to September 1, in order to reduce tensions in the north.
Meanwhile, the Serbs have removed the barricades.
The United States and the European Union have also requested such a postponement, although they have said that Kosovo has the right to implement these decisions.
The Government of Kosovo has said that Prime Minister Kurti discussed two topics in the August 18 meetings.
According to the Government, the meeting discussed the general framework of the final agreement.
According to her, Kurti has emphasized that this agreement should be based on mutual recognition, therefore “he has presented several chapters with relevant elements that this framework should contain”.
“The second topic was the current political and security issues for which Prime Minister Kurti pointed out the importance of legality and constitutionalism in our country as guarantees of peace, security and equality for all citizens without distinction”, it was said, among other things, in the Government’s communique on August 18.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said on August 21 in Belgrade that he received the support of the representatives of the Serbs from Kosovo for a compromise solution to the issue of Serbian license plates and documents.
According to him, Serbia will not allow columns of refugees and that in the last round of dialogue, Kosovo has talked about a final agreement of six points.
After the meeting with the Serbian representatives from Kosovo, Vučić told the nation that he does not know what the compromise solution could be for the issue of Serbian license plates and documents.
“As soon as I understand, I will let you know. We will try, we will do our best. If we can, we can, we can’t, we can’t”.
The dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia started 11 years ago.
So far, more than 20 agreements have been reached in areas such as energy, telecommunications, justice, customs, freedom of movement, but not all have been implemented.
Kosovo insists that the dialogue for the normalization of relations be concluded with mutual recognition between both countries.
Serbia, on the other hand, seeks a compromise solution.
