Paris
The European Union is pressing wartime foes Serbia and Kosovo to discuss a new plan to normalize ties but must first ease a flare-up in tensions that’s blocking progress.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti traveled to Paris for two days of negotiations on Thursday to discuss a proposal that an EU official described as the latest push by the bloc to resolve a dispute that has simmered since Yugoslavia’s bloody breakup.
The proposal, part of which was leaked by the Brussels-based Euractiv website on Wednesday, calls for Serbia and Kosovo to develop “good neighborly relations with each other based on equal rights,” bound by the common goal to join the EU. The draft would also help Kosovo join international bodies and the establishment of diplomatic missions in each others’ capitals.
Each Balkan leader were to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Paris separately on Thursday and Friday, according to the EU official, who is close to the talks but spoke on the condition of anonymity because of their sensitivity.
“I am prepared, and always interested, for dialog,” Kurti said on Facebook, acknowledging the existence of the EU’s proposal. He said he was ready to discuss the “complete normalization of relations between the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia, with mutual recognition at the center.”
Officials from Serbia and Kosovo and the EU didn’t respond to requests from Bloomberg on details of the proposal. The bloc has made normalizing ties a condition for either of the Balkan states to achieve membership.
Vucic has vowed to never recognize the independence of Kosovo, which seceded from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after the two sides fought a war on mostly ethnic lines.
