BRUSSELS – The EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajčák said that Tuesday’s negotiations were not easy, but it was important the meeting happened, FoNet reported.
„Both leaders were extremely open and honest about what they want from the Dialogue. That’s important for the EU because there is no other way forward besides the normalisation of relations. Both leaders are committed to working on the normalisation through the Dialogue,“ Lajčák told reporters after the meeting.
Lajčák and the EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell mediated Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti first meeting on the Belgrade and Pristina relations dialogue after 18 months.
Kurti: We have put forward four new proposals
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, stated today that the Kosovo side was constructive at the meeting with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, at which four proposals of Pristina were presented, but that was not the case with the Serbian delegation, RTK reported.
“We will participate in this process, which is difficult. While the other side talked about old ideas, we presented four new proposals. We proposed the launch of a new agreement on SEFTA, the second proposal was that after the NATO summit, where clear and unanimous messages were given, a declaration of peace be signed between Kosovo and Serbia that they will not attack each other,” said Kurti.
According to him, the next proposal was for Veljko Odalović, who, Kurti said, was one of the people leading the occupation of Kosovo, to leave the Serbian Commission for missing persons.
Kurti concluded that, when it comes to minorities, reciprocity should be introduced.
“For Serbs in Kosovo, we would have a National Council, as in Serbia for Albanians. These three proposals were rejected, but they did not respond to SEFTA. I hope that they will seriously consider our proposal that we gave today,” the Prime Minister of Kosovo explained.
Vučić: Kurti came with an intention “not to agree”
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučič said after the meeting with Kurti, that the Prime Minister of Kosovo comes to Brussels for the resumed dialogue “not to agree”, FoNet reported.
„He asked me when I would recognise Kosovo’s independence? I said never,“ Vučić told reporters after the meetings within the continuation of the high-level Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalisation of relation under the European Union auspices.
Vučić listed three main things the Albanian delegation did not want to agree on.
„They don’t want to form the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM), demand an urgent recognition of their independence and describe as incidents and provocations the Serbs’ wish to take part in services in their churches in Kosovo,“ Vučić told, adding he was mild in reacting to what he said was „a total absence of reality.“
Vučić said he offered to Kurti to specify any possible place where he believed might be a mass grave of Kosovo’s Albanians killed in the 1988-1999 war and that Belgrade would investigate it.
At the same time, Vučić said he mentioned nine locations where Belgrade believed were the remains of killed Kosovo’s Serbs in the war, but that Kurti refused it saying that Serbia’s official Veljko Odalović in charge of missing persons was „Göring and Goebbels.“