Expert: By Supporting Open Balkans, U.S. Is asking Serbia to Recognize Kosovo

Negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina (European Council/Mario Salerno)

Sinisa Vukovic, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, said on June 25 that, through its support for the Open Balkans project, the United States was asking Serbia to recognize Kosovo's independence.

"One can guess that the true intention of the U.S. administration is to send the following signal through these messages: If the leaders in the region who are promoting the Open Balkans really want the U.S.'s unambiguous support, all countries must open this process, which implicitly imposes on Belgrade the expectation of accepting Kosovo's membership as an independent state," Vukovic told the Vojvodina portal Autonomija in an interview.

He said there was no political will or readiness in Belgrade for something like that. "One can often hear that the idea of the Open Balkans is in fact an idea closely tied to Euroscepticism. The Open Balkans really does offer possibilities for Eurosceptic decision makers to cleverly hide behind an illusion of open market exchange in the region in order to avoid accountability in meeting obligations related to the rule of law," Vukovic said.

According to him, positions that the EU tolerated or ignored before will now most certainly be treated with a lot more attention and seriousness. "In these circumstances, the accelerated recognition of Kosovo by the remaining five EU members cannot be excluded, and that would dramatically change Serbia's negotiating position in future relations with the Union," Vukovic said.