By: Adnan Cerimagic

I made a personal plea to the presidents of Serbia and Kosovo — but it fell on deaf ears.

On a stage with the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia at the weekend, I appealed directly to both of them not to make a fatal mistake and destabilize the whole Balkan region.

I spoke not just as a policy analyst but in personal terms as a citizen of the Balkans, telling the story of how my birthplace in Bosnia and Herzegovina was destroyed by war but reborn as a multiethnic community once again.

“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.

Southeast Europe Studies professor at Graz University Florian Bieber said the proposed border change was "much more complicated in practice than as an idea."

Professor Bieber told Euronews portal that the deal between Belgrade and Pristina on border changes might inspire similar ambitions in the region. He flagged Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro as areas that might demand change.

He thought that the president of Serbian and Kosovo, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci weren't "particularly concerned by the larger political implications."

American geopolitician and a founder of Stratfor Agency George Friedman opined for Danas daily what would be an ideal solution to resolve the Kosovo issue.

According to him, the ideal solution would be that Belgrade and Pristina reach a direct agreement without involvement of a third party. He also thinks it is important for Serbia to resolve this issue as soon as possible and “move ahead.”

Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said that Serbia is being given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get something for its people and citizens in Kosovo and Metohija.

"This is about whether we get something or lose everything," Dacic told RTS. He added that they could refuse that chance but that "we shouldn't play dumb now, because nobody is proposing that entire Kosovo stays within the borders of Serbia."

He said the dialogue is yet to continue and the possible solutions are yet to be proposed.

The European Union should accept an agreement between Serbs and ethnic Albanians to settle their long-standing dispute over Kosovo, a top official of the bloc said, seeking to dispel fears that any redrawing of the Balkan border might reignite feuds in the volatile region.

See at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-26/eu-urged-to-back-serbia-and-kosovo-as-they-mull-border-change

The European Commission has endorsed the idea of a potential Kosovo-Serbia border change, going against Germany and breaking a former taboo.

"Whatever the solution finally is, and we should not exclude anything ... [it] should respect that the overarching goal is stability in the region," EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said at a symposium in Alpbach, Austria, on Saturday (25 August).

See at: https://euobserver.com/enlargement/142655

The Mayor of Medvedja, Nebojsa Arsic said that he did not hear from the Albanian representatives there or anywhere else that they wanted to join Kosovo.

Medvedja is not a part of Presevo valley. The majority of municipality's population are Serbs.

Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurtz said he does not want to comment on proposals related to borders correction or delineation in Kosovo until there are concrete plans offered for something like that, RTS reported.

Kurtz’s cabinet confirmed the Austrian Chancellor spoke with presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci. He encouraged both officials to make further progress in a dialogue, highlighting “it is a crucial precondition” for the region to get closer to the EU.

Neither Serbian nor Kosovo presidents want a quick solution to the Kosovo problem, Professor at the Centre for South-East European Studies in Graz, Florian Bieber told TV N1.

“I ask myself whether both presidents want some kind of quick solution," Bieber asked, adding that "they want to keep talking about it."

"The EU would later be tending to other things - the rule of law, corruption, so I think that the signing of some legally binding document would either way not be taking place in the spring," Bieber said.