Berlin increases pressure on Belgrade over Kosovo (Danas)
Forthcoming meeting between the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be interpreted as increased pressure on Belgrade to reach an agreement on normalization of relations with Pristina as soon as possible.
This is what diplomatic representatives and experts for regional affairs told Belgrade-based daily Danas.
“Berlin would continue to exercise pressure upon Belgrade in regards to Kosovo issue and it is possible that Merkel would remind Vucic on some unfulfilled promises. On the other side, the impression is that Vucic is not ready to make new concessions,” interlocutors told Danas.
Franc-Lotar Altman, International Relations Professor at Bucharest University, said he does not expect Merkel would say anything new to Vucic, but would only explain to him again that Germany would not support membership of Serbia to the EU unless Belgrade and Pristina make a sustainable agreement on the formal status of Kosovo.
Dusan Janjic, from the Forum for Interethnic Relations thinks that meeting in Berlin “would be very useful for Vucic and for Serbia as well.”
“This is a critical moment as the situation differs to the great extent from the one in July last year when Vucic launched an initiative on internal dialogue on Kosovo. Belgrade moved away from the concept of full normalization of relations with Pristina, that some call “model of two-Germany,” something that Berlin insists on,” Janjic said.
Second topic, according to Janjic would be security as for the first time after two decades possibility of a new war in Kosovo is mentioned, something that is unacceptable to Germany, Danas daily reported.