German, French Embassies in Kosovo Deny Existence of German-French Non-Paper

Pristina (BETA/Andrija Igic)

The German and French Embassies in Kosovo on April 27 denied the existence of a German-French non-paper on the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

In its April 27 issue, Pristina daily Koha Ditore published an informal document, allegedly drafted by Germany and France as a joint initiative for the resumption of the dialogue and its closure with a final arrangement. Koha Ditore could not verify the authenticity of the document, but wrote that several diplomats the daily has spoken with had confirmed that the items mentioned in the document were more or less in line with what had been discussed in the dialogue. 

On his Twitter account on April 27, German Ambassador to Kosovo Joern Rohde wrote that Berlin offered full support to the EU-led dialogue. “The so-called ‘German-French non-paper,’ published by Koha Ditore is fake news! There might be a paper, but it’s for sure not a German-French one. Our full support is for the EU-led dialogue led by EUSR @MiroslavLajcak as German FM Maas again underlined last Thursday in Pristina,” Rhode wrote. 

The French Embassy in Kosovo also used Twitter to deny the Pristina daily’s report: “France and Germany are not the source of the so-called non-paper published in Koha Ditore. We fully support the EU mediation and hail the efforts in that direction invested by EU’s Special Representative for the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajcak,” it is said in the announcement.