PRISTINA – During his visit to Kosovo last Friday, the European Union Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajčák said to the journalists that the letter sent last December by Serbia on “red lines” for the implementation of the 2023 Ohrid agreements had been withdrawn.
The letter was sent by Ana Brnabić, then Prime Minister of Serbia, on the occasion of the EU-Western Balkan Summit on 13 December 2023, days before the early parliamentary election in Serbia.
The declaration adopted by the summit participants urged Belgrade and Pristina to fully implement the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation and its Implementation Annex. These agreements were accepted by Aleksandar Vučić and Albin Kurti in Brussels and Ohrid in early 2023.
Brnabić’s letter subsequently emphasised that the implementation of the agreements was “only acceptable in the context which is not related to de jure and de facto recognition of Kosovo”.
“The Republic of Serbia”, the letter further stated, “stresses that this determination (to implement the agreement) does not extend to the recognition of Kosovo’s membership in the UN, the system of UN organizations and agencies, nor the so-called territorial integrity of Kosovo.”
The 2023 Brussels agreement stated in point 4 that “Serbia will not object to Kosovo’s membership in any international organisation”.
On 6 September 2024 in Pristina, Miroslav Lajčák stated that the letter had been withdrawn, KoSSev reports. There has been no reaction from Serbia to this statement so far.
Lajčák, whose mandate as Special Representative expires in January, visited Kosovo last week in preparation for the next meeting of Chief Negotiators in Brussels. He met with First Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and announced an upcoming trip to Belgrade, though he did not specify the date.
Regarding the opening of the Ibar bridge in Mitrovica, Lajčák said that it needs to be done in close cooperation with international partners.