With regard to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic’s formulation of a new platform for Kosovo, a senior research fellow on the politics of south east Europe at the London School of Economics, James Ker-Lindsay, claims that ‘it won’t have the effect’.

“If it doesn’t mean that Serbia is called to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, it will simply be ignored in Brussels. The standing point of majority EU member states is that the time has come for review of the status of Kosovo. Undoubtedly, there is no interest for considering any other option for Kosovo, such as division. EU maintains that Serbia, with the agreement from 2013, had accepted for Kosovo to remain united, and that Kosovo Serbs should be integrated in Kosovo’s political structures. There is a widely accepted view that Serbs had a chance to try to offer alternatives, but that momentum is now gone,” said Ker-Lindsay to Belgrade-based daily Danas.

Commenting on tasks that Serbia has on its European path this year, he said that there are numerous steps which should be taken, first of all the one which implies finding a way of treating the issue of Kosovo within the chapter 35.  “It turned out to be very complicated and requires approach which will be acceptable to Serbia, but which, at the same time, doesn’t bring into question the fact that 23 out of 28 EU member states have recognized Kosovo’s independence. No one is completely sure about the best way to carry it out. Also, reforms should be accelerated, particularly in the areas of judiciary and rule of law, which is priority for the EU,” concluded Ker-Lindsay.