Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti agreed in February on eleven points in an EU plan to normalize relations between their countries.
This weekend’s talks in North Macedonia have been about how the plan should be put into practice. According to EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, who mediates between the two former warring neighbours, an agreement has been reached.
“The parties have undertaken to respect all articles of the agreement and implement their respective obligations in an effective manner and in good faith,” Borell wrote on Twitter late Saturday evening.
“Agreement on certain points”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic emphasizes that “some sort of agreement” has been reached.
– We have agreed on certain points, not on all points. This is not the final agreement, Vucic told reporters after the talks, according to Reuters.
The two countries hope to join the EU at some point in the future.
The idea behind the EU’s plan is for the countries to recognize each other’s national symbols and official documents, and for Serbia to stop blocking Kosovo’s attempts to join the UN.
Pressed
Serbia’s president has appeared to back away from some parts of the EU plan in retrospect. Vucic is under heavy pressure from domestic, more hard-line nationalist groups who consider Kosovo to be the cradle of the Serbian state.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has previously expressed himself a little more hopeful, but not too hopeful.
– I was prepared to sign the European proposal (at the last meeting in Brussels), but the other side was not ready and refused, Albin Kurti said before the weekend’s talks.
