“It was a splendid PR move” this is how Tina Prelec, associate of the London School of Economics described messages sent from the European forum held over the weekend in Alpbach, Austria, where she also took part along with Kosovo and Serbian presidents Hashim Thaci and Aleksandar Vucic, Radio Free Europe reports.
In an interview for Radio Free Europe, Prelec said Serbian and Kosovo sides used this gathering to present an idea on change of borders at the highest level.
“My impression is that absolutely all politicians who were at the gathering supported such initiative. Such a possible agreement between Kosovo and Serbian leadership. It is also impression this gathering was used as a test to see how the news would echo among the public both in the Balkans and the European Union. To see if something like that could be pushed forward,” Prelec explained.
She added she wanted to raise at the forum some of the issues that go unnoticed but in fact are the major problems of the region. She listed corruption, emigration, civil society. She warned that the highest risk of the entire process which speaks about the exchange of territories is that the public would now focus on that particular issue, which is in fact superficial. And no one would deal with issues that are the most relevant for all the societies in the region and relate to the lack of possibilities for the citizens to have better lives, Prelec elaborated.
