Borrell: Time for Serbia and Kosovo To Clearly Say How They Will Implement Agreement

Josep Borrell/PHOTO/Olivier Matthys

EU foreign policy and security chief Josep Borrell has said that it is time for Serbia and Kosovo to agree on the implementation of the annex to the agreement on the road to normalizing relations and say clearly how they will realize it and for their leaders to show their courage and responsibility.

In a blog posted on the European foreign affairs service on March 16, Borrell said that without normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina there was no membership in the EU, as well as the dialogue needed to be viewed in a broader geopolitical context. "Russia's aggressive war on Ukraine has changed the picture. The dialogue is not just about Kosovo and Serbia. It must be viewed in the current broader geopolitical context, a decisive time in European history," he said.

"The Western Balkans are part of Europe. They are definitely not a chip that Putin will use in his imperialistic dreams," Borrell wrote ahead of a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti in Ohrid on March 18.

Borrell said that the main subject of the meeting would be implementing the annex to the agreement which would result in "a far reaching normalization of relations" between Belgrade and Pristina and the "essential" normalization of the lives of people in the region and open the road to membership in the EU for Serbia and Kosovo. Borrell stressed that Serbia and Kosovo needed to normalize relations to join the Union and that there was no way around it.