Negotiations Are Key to Serbia and Kosovo’s Efforts to Advance on Path Toward European Union Membership
BRUSSELS—High-level reconciliation talks between Serbia and Kosovo resumed Monday after close to a year, as the two prime ministers met with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.
The resumption of talks for the first time since March 2014 follows elections last year in both Serbia and Kosovo. It comes as both governments face rising political pressures.
The negotiations are key to Serbia and Kosovo’s efforts to advance on the path toward European Union membership. Brussels has said both governments have failed to fully implement their parts of a landmark April 2013 agreement which sought to normalize the situation of the Serbian minority living in Albanian-majority Kosovo.
Serbia has been in membership talks with the EU for a year now but powerful governments like Germany have conditioned the opening of formal talks on accession topics—known as chapters—on further reconciliation with its longtime foe. Kosovo is still seeking to complete a pre-accession agreement with the EU.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters after meeting with EU enlargement negotiations chief Johannes Hahn that his government would press ahead with economic reforms and the Kosovo dialogue.
“We hope that Serbia will see some chapters opening very soon,” he said referring to the 35 accession topics. “We are not seeking…easy solutions or easy escapes.”
Mr. Hahn said the resumption of the Serbia-Kosovo talks was a welcome step and that he wanted to see Serbia “as soon as possible in the European family.”
Serbia hopes to be ready to join the bloc by 2020 but many EU officials think that date is highly ambitious. However, Mr. Hahn said Monday some accession chapters could be opened in coming months if Belgrade follows through its reform pledges.
The Kosovo issue is one of the thorniest for Belgrade. Serbia has vowed never to recognize its former province, which declared independence in 2008. Mr. Vucic’s government must also make major strides in fighting corruption and turning round Serbia’s fragile economy if the country is to join the bloc.
Mr. Vucic has already taken unpopular measures like reducing pensions and government salaries and has promised to cut subsidies to state-run enterprises and privatize some.
While he received a strong mandate from voters in an election last year, EU officials say Mr. Vucic appears increasingly worried about the number of politically difficult challenges he faces. That includes EU pressure to start abiding by the bloc’s sanctions on Russia, a traditional ally of Belgrade.
In recent weeks, tensions have flared between Brussels and Belgrade with Mr. Vucic verbally attacking the EU ambassador in Belgrade over EU money received by a media organization that made corruption allegations against the government.
EU officials have voiced their own concerns about Mr. Vucic stymying media freedom at home.
Meanwhile, Kosovo’s new Prime Minister Isa Mustafa has faced a rocky start to his premiership which followed a six-month political stalemate after June elections. Early February, Mr. Mustafa fired an ethnic Serb minister following protests sparked by a comment he had made.
Speaking in Brussels Monday, Mr. Mustafa said his government was working “very hard” to complete the work needed to finalize the EU pre-accession accord and to pave the way to a visa liberalization accord with the EU.
