“It will continue to escalate”

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In December and January, the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo in the Balkans escalated. The Serbian army was alerted and the Kosovo response followed promptly. On Saturday, the two heads of state Aleksandar Vučić (53) and Albin Kurti (47) are expected to shake hands in the North Macedonian city of Ohrid.

An agreement drawn up by the EU will be signed there. In this, the Kosovo and Serbian borders must be accepted by both sides. And: embassies will be opened in the respective capitals. The fact that Serbia recognizes Kosovo as a sovereign state is ignored.

It’s not about anyone winning or losing, says Miroslav Lajčak (59), EU representative for dialogue between countries. “The goal is to find a win-win situation and open the European door.” Because both countries want to join the EU at some point.

Daniel Bochsler (43), a political scientist at the Central European University and the University of Belgrade, explains in an interview with Blick: “Internationally, it is hoped that the two sides will talk about the war together and go through the past.” In short: a reconciliation process must be started.

For Belgrade and Pristina, the meeting on Saturday is an important step in the right direction – “but nothing has been resolved yet,” said Bochsler. 15 years ago Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, since then the situation has never stabilized, as the precarious situation in December showed.

According to Bochsler, there is something Kurti and Vučić need to clarify: “There are still huge problems for the population to bear.” There are mutual problems with the recognition of school qualifications and new complications limiting the freedom to travel keep emerging. On the other hand, the Serbian minority in Kosovo is afraid of losing its political rights.

“Whatever is decided or not on Saturday, there will be escalations,” Bochsler is sure. This has happened again in recent years and it is still a long way from an agreement to its implementation.

Serbian community in Kosovo major bottleneck

According to Bochsler, there are still too many bottlenecks for official recognition of Kosovo by Serbia. One of these is the Serbian communities in Kosovo. The Brussels agreement, signed by both parties in 2013, stipulates that there must be a community of municipalities with a Serb majority. “But Kosovo is afraid of a kind of federal unity in its own country,” explains Bochsler. The fear of a “Trojan horse” is too great. Serbia, in turn, wants to give this union the widest possible range of rights.

Both heads of state expressed their support for signing the agreement in February. But Bochsler isn’t sure they’ll stick to it. Earlier agreements – as the example from 2013 shows – were also not implemented.

“It is quite possible that both parties are using new problems as an excuse to break the contract.” This way you can keep working on solutions. Finding a solution that fits everyone 100 percent is going to be difficult. But Bochsler also states: “The
international community, any solution is better than no solution.”

Source: Blick