Borrell: No Agreement Between Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, Each Side's Preconditions Unacceptable to the Other

BETAPHOTO/European Commissionl/Claudio Centonze

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has said that an agreement between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo was not possible due to the preconditions set by each side which the other found unacceptable.

After separate talks of the leaders of the EU, France, Germany, and Italy with Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on Oct. 26, Borrell said that they had all together presented a new European serious and balanced proposal for the establishment of an Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities and had insisted that the two sides use that opportunity because it would be "a great leap forward" in the process of normalizing relations. 

Unfortunately, the two sides were not ready to agree on that, and each side found the other's preconditions unacceptable, Borrell told reporters late on Oct. 26.

Borrell added that the EU leaders "require the parties to sincerely engage" in the process of normalizing relations.

"That can only be done in the framework of the Dialogue, because it is the only way for them to advance on their European path. We will continue insisting and working in order to get an agreement," said Borrell.

He also said that the leaders of the EU, France, Germany, and Italy were "very much concerned by the impasse of the normalization process between Kosovo and Serbia, and the recent terrorist attacks (in the village of Banjska), that we have condemned again" at the Oct. 26 meetings.

The Kosovo government issued a statement in the evening on Oct. 26 saying that Kurti had reiterated at the meetings that he was ready to sign the Agreement on the path to normalization between Kosovo and Serbia, which was agreed on in Brussels in February, but that Vucic had not wanted to do the same.

Vucic said that the paper "the big five" brought to Belgrade and Pristina on Oct. 21 was "a good basis" for further work and the forming of the Community of Serb Municipalities.