BRUSSELS – “Both (the President of Kosovo Hashim) Thaçi and the US administration seem to be convinced that 2019 could witness a comprehensive normalisation agreement. However, strong contradictory positions are continuing, and compromises needed for the agreement to be achieved seem highly improbable”, assessed the European Parliamentary Research Service Report, which was published last week.
Despite the mounting pressure on both sides to reach an agreement on the normalisation of relations, they are still tense and the progress is at a standstill, underlines the Report, titled “Serbia-Kosovo Relations: Confrontation or Normalisation?”, Euractiv.rs reports.
“The solution for complicated political challenges seem further than ever, and neither of the sides seem to be ready to make concessions even in exchange for the EU membership”, the Report highlights.
It reminds that in 2018 it seemed that the process will come to an end with the initiative for border correction, but that, as it now stands, domestic and international opposition to the idea has prevailed.
Even though both sides recognize the need to continue negotiations, the will for a compromise is non-existent, because the two sides regard the process as a zero-sum game.
For example, after the second round of Brussels Agreement was signed in 2015, Chief of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Đurić announced it as a 5:0 victory. Furthermore, Minister of Interior Nebojša Stefanović welcomed the refusal of Interpol to accept Kosovo as a member in 2018 as a victory, the Report reminds.