EU, US Disgruntled over Kurti’s Refusal to Restart Dialogue

Albin Kurti (Beta/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

Officials in the European Union’s institutions and members of the Union have strongly demanded that the authorities in Kosovo make a substantial effort to rebuild dialogue with Belgrade, making it very clear that neither Serbia nor Kosovo could progress in their integration into the EU without tangible progress in the normalization of their relations, materialized in a comprehensive, internationally recognized agreement.

Officials in the European Union and the Council of Ministers of the EU told BETA this, underlining that the EU's institutions and governments were extremely displeased with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti's persistent refusal to accept to rebuild the dialogue with Serbia and implement all of the agreements reached earlier, in spite of clear reasons for this.

When asked by BETA if the Americans could assist in the well-argumented effort to persuade him, our sources in Brussels said that “Kurti wouldn’t budge, despite considerable pressure from U.S. officials.”

For the time being, they went on to say, there is no chance of organizing a truly important meeting in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue any time soon, especially one involving Serbian and Kosovo leaders. “The EU and Washington have come to the conclusion that Kurti has been the one hindering the dialogue completely,” which recent attempts at resolving at least technical issues like car plates have confirmed.

The officials at the EU's headquarters said that the Union’s policy towards Serbia, and vice-versa, had reached a turning point, adding though that an inevitable resolution of Belgrade-Pristina ties should by no means be linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was an issue of global magnitude which affected the Union’s security as well.