Kosovo and Serbia leaders agree on an Agenda for Brussels Talks
Brussels, July 12, 2020
Kosovo and Serbia have agreed to resume EU-backed normalization talks at a video conference mediated by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The round of talks came as the EU seeks to reinvigorate a normalization process that has stalled for the past two years. The conference is an introduction to the resumption of the dialogue, announced for Thursday, July 16.
“We agreed on the main elements of the process. We also agreed on the agenda of our next meeting that will take place this coming Thursday, in Brussels, in person. I want to thank our partners for their constructive engagement today,” EU special envoy for the dialog Miroslav Lajcak said.
Borrell and Lajčak held separate meetings with Hoti and Vucic ahead of the conference. Ahead of the meeting on Sunday, EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell, who chaired the talks along with Lajcak, urged both sides to cooperate. He said the lack of a solution was restricting economic progress and risking instability. During the trilateral meeting, Vučić announced that the themes of the next meeting in Brussels had been defined.
In talks on Friday, Vucic and Hoti held firm to their positions. Speaking after the meeting, Vucic said “we had really tough negotiations,” and that he told Macron and Merkel that if Kosovo’s independence “is what they want to talk about, then these talks are completely meaningless.” Hoti said, “mutual recognition between the two countries is the only way to normalize relations.”