Belgrade-based daily Danas writes today it has learnt unofficially from diplomatic sources that Serbia would continue lobbying among the states that recognized Kosovo to revoke their decisions.
The daily recalled EU High Representative and a mediator in Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in Brussels, Federica Mogherini urged earlier both Belgrade and Pristina to stop the lobbying activities related to recognition respectively derecognition of Kosovo, and that Pristina authorities needed to revoke 100 percent tariffs on goods from central Serbia.
“Given that Pristina did not revoke the tariffs, then Serbian authorities will not give up on the lobbing for derecognition of Kosovo. Therefore, there is agreement neither on the tariffs nor ceasing lobbying campaign,” sources told Danas.
The daily added the claims of the Montenegro opposition leader Nebojsa Medojevic that Serbian and Kosovo presidents, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci would meet in New York on June 12 and reach an agreement on Kosovo are not accurate. According to the sources, on that day Aleksandar Vucic would “open a large factory in Serbia,” while nobody invited him to visit New York nor there is such an idea.
The sources were also “rather skeptical” anything major related to Kosovo would occur in the next two months. The EU would focus on the European Parliament elections and consultations on the new format of the European Commission afterwards, while Belgrade and Pristina would wait for the meeting in Paris, announced to take place at the beginning of July. Also, there are different stances on the Kosovo issue within the EU itself, which makes the situation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emanuel Macron to present any new idea on Kosovo more difficult.
On the other hand, stubbornness and lack of willingness on the side of both Belgrade and Pristina to move in the direction of a compromise, test the patience of Paris, Berlin and Washington as well. Some EU states feel almost insulted over the US engagement to resolve the Kosovo issue, however, without US involvement and Moscow’s acceptance it would be impossible to untie Kosovo “Gordian knot,” the daily said.
Diplomats also claimed the requests of the Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to exclude EU HR Mogherini from further dialogue on Kosovo “are not realistic at all.” They added that Haradinaj with such rhetoric tries to score new points on “domestic-Pristina’s ground.”
They also viewed Hashim Thaci’s statements on ‘erasing the borders’ between Kosovo and Albania in the same light ‘as conducting an internal campaign.’
