• Borrell: Western Balkans can celebrate ‘big step’ if Kosovo and Serbia agree on document (RFE)
• Osmani to meet Escobar today (media)
• Gjini: We support signing of agreement; it includes recognition (Klan Kosova)
• Krasniqi: There will be no agreement on Saturday in Ohrid (media)
• Haziri: The agreement does not deserve the LDK’s support (Indeksonline)
• Vucic: I don’t plan to sign anything in meeting with Kurti (RFE)
• Escobar will take part in Ohrid meeting (RFE)
• “Failure to reach agreement increases risk of unrest in north of Kosovo” (VoA)

Borrell: Western Balkans can celebrate ‘big step’ if Kosovo and Serbia agree on document (RFE)

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the entire Western Balkans region will benefit from Serbia and Kosovo implementing an EU normalization proposal they agreed on in Brussels last month.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are scheduled to meet on March 18 in Ohrid, North Macedonia, to continue talks on the agreement on the path toward the normalization of relations.

The European Union expects them to agree during the meeting on the implementation annex of the agreement, which is considered an integral part of the document.

“If this happens…then Western Balkans will celebrate a big step forward toward [a] European Union path,” Borrell said on March 16 in Tirana, where he participated in a meeting of the Stabilization and Association Council with Albania.

“The agreement will put their relations on a new more sustainable basis and will ensure that dialogue will continue on its trajectory toward full normalization,” Borrell said, echoing comments he wrote in a blog on March 16.

The Ohrid meeting is a follow-up to a discussion that leaders of Kosovo and Serbia had on February 27 in Brussels at which they agreed on the text of the initial plan.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3Fvj9nZ

Osmani to meet Escobar today (media)

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani will meet U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, this morning at 09:00. They are scheduled to address the media after the meeting.

Gjini: We support signing of agreement; it includes recognition (Klan Kosova)

Deputy leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), Ardian Gjini, said after his meeting with U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier and U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, that the meeting focused on the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. He told Klan Kosova that the position of the AAK is that the agreement must be signed. “It would be positive for Kosovo. The current agreement implicitly includes recognition,” Gjini said.

Krasniqi: There will be no agreement on Saturday in Ohrid (media)

Leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Memli Krasniqi, said in an interview with RTV21 on Thursday that there will be no agreement between Kosovo and Serbia on Saturday because the parties have different positions about the European plan.

Krasniqi said that even if Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian President Vucic sign the plan, the PDK will not support it because Article 7 would give autonomy to Serb-majority municipalities.

“I don’t think that the agreement will happen, and I want to say this openly. What is happening here is a game between Prime Minister Kurti and Vucic on who is a good guy in the eyes of the internationals,” he said.

Krasniqi said he was confident that nothing will be signed on March 18 in Ohrid. “I can tell you with full confidence that nothing will be signed. The same way nothing was signed on February 27 in Brussels, there will be no signing in Ohrid on Saturday,” he argued.

Haziri: The agreement does not deserve the LDK’s support (Indeksonline)

Deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Lutfi Haziri, said on Thursday that an agreement according to the European plan does not deserve the support of the LDK. Haziri’s remarks come two days before the meeting in Ohrid between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

“The result in Ohrid is under the pressure of the international factor but also on our peoples. The LDK has a clear position. Dialogue has no alternative, it needs to take place and the parties need to be pragmatic. We have asked that there should be no backing down from the main objective and this is mutual recognition … The elephant in the room is the Association. In our opinion, the agreement has not met the expectations and it contains four problems, and as such it doesn’t deserve the support of the LDK. The Prime Minister of Kosovo needs to work on an internal dialogue,” Haziri said in an interview for ABC News.

According to Haziri, with the EU plan, the Association has gone beyond the Brussels agreements. “Ohrid cannot fail. Everyone fears that it will become complicated because the status of the Association has gone beyond the agreement in 2013 … The Prime Minister is in a difficult situation, because he needs to be creative, and make proposals, while safeguarding the constitutional character of Kosovo and give assurances for internal normalisation, because we are on the eve of elections in the Serb municipalities in the north and there is an institutional vacuum there,” he said.

Vucic: I don’t plan to sign anything in meeting with Kurti (RFE)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that he “doesn’t plan to sign anything” in his meeting with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on March 18. He said that “there is yet no draft of what the European Union wants” in the negotiations for the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo. “We presented our proposal, the Albanians presented theirs. We haven’t received anything from Brussels yet and that document doesn’t exist yet,” he added.

Vucic also said that the meeting with Kurti “will not be a judgment day” and that he would try to do “what is best for Serbia”.

“Normalisation is to have better relations with the Albanians than today, to resolve the countless problems and to try to live together as much as possible, and if not then next to one another,” he said. “To work on the normalisation of relations with Kosovo; to build better relations with the European Union and to strongly uphold our red lines. I will not give up from this”.

Escobar will take part in Ohrid meeting (RFE)

United States Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, will take part as an observer in the new round of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in Ohrid on March 18, the U.S. Embassy in Skopje has confirmed. “The United States fully support the EU-facilitated dialogue. Escobar will travel to Ohrid, North Macedonia, to support the process,” the embassy said.

“Failure to reach agreement increases risk of unrest in north of Kosovo” (VoA)

Marko Prelec, analyst with the International Crisis Group, said in an interview with the Voice of America that the failure to reach an agreement for the normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia increases the risk of unrest in the north of Kosovo which could seriously damage the future of relations between the two parties.

Prelec said he does not expect an agreement during the meeting in Ohrid on Saturday, but he hopes that progress will be reached toward the implementation of the European plan.

He added that Kosovo could win with the plan and that concerns that the Association of Serb-majority municipalities could turn into a mechanism similar to the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina are unsustainable.