Kurti: Serbia Violates Agreement, EU Officials Responsible

Pristina (Photo: YTPrintScreen)

Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti blamed Serbia on Sept. 25 for the lack of progress in the negotiations on normalization of relations, as he did the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, and the EU’s envoy in the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak.

In an interview to the Brussels-based portal Politico, Kurti accused Serbia of not implementing the agreement on the path to normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic of sheltering the former vice-president of the Serb List, Milan Radoicic, who has assumed responsibility for the armed attack on the Kosovo police in Banjska on Sept. 24, 2023.

“Radoicic walks free in Serbia, Serbia protects and finances him,” Kurti said. The Kosovo premier accused Belgrade for frequent violations of agreements, but also believes that EU officials were responsible, too. “The problem is that Borrell and Lajcak did not blow the whistle when fouls were committed. Imagine a referee on a football pitch without a whistle,” Kurti added.

“Belgrade’s approach is not the normalization of relations with Kosovo. How come that they accepted the (Ohrid) agreement, but refused to sign it?” Kurti stated in conversation with a journalist of Politico, one day after the working lunch the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen had with the leaders from the Western Balkans.