The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Monday in Brussels that international pressure on Kosovo and Serbia will continue to ensure they fulfill their obligations from the agreement reached a year ago, with the aim of normalizing relations between the two countries.
Borrell made these statements while speaking to journalists on the eve of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting.
Once again, Borrell expressed regret that a year after the Ohrid Agreement was reached, the level of its implementation by the parties has been much lower than he expected.
He referred to the consensus between Kosovo and Serbia on the annex of an agreement, for which the parties had dinner in Brussels in February last year.
“Today is the first anniversary of the Ohrid Agreement. Time flies, and it has been a year since we reached an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, so that they could move forward towards normalization. Unfortunately, despite broad international and European Union support, Serbia and Kosovo have made very little progress,” Borrell told reporters, also announcing the next meeting within the dialogue, at the level of chief negotiators.
“Soon we will have another meeting of chief negotiators here in Brussels. I am sorry that this agreement, which was very difficult to achieve, has not been implemented. We will continue to pressure both parties to move forward. But, a year later, the implementation has not been as much as I had expected it to be,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief.
He made similar comments on Sunday in a statement issued by his office on the anniversary of the Ohrid Agreement.
Meanwhile, a meeting within the dialogue has been announced for Tuesday in Brussels, where Kosovo and Serbia will be represented by chief negotiators.
Kosovo is expected to be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, while Serbia’s delegation will be led by the director of the Office for Kosovo in the government of Serbia, Petar Petković.
The European Union has announced that this meeting will discuss finding a solution regarding the use of currency in Kosovo as well as other urgent issues, including the implementation of the Agreement on the path to the normalization of relations.
The decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo to enforce a regulation designating the euro as the sole currency for cash payments has been considered as a “ban on Serbia’s dinar” and has been criticized by the international community as “unilateral, uncoordinated, and not communicated in advance”.
According to the EU and the United States, this decision has caused practical problems for some communities in Kosovo, which receive financial assistance from Serbia.
In search of a solution, a meeting was held in Brussels a week ago, attended by a delegation from the Central Bank of Kosovo, but not from the government of Kosovo.
The government of Kosovo insists that this is not a political issue but is within the competence of the Central Bank of Kosovo as an independent financial institution.
However, the EU considers that due to practical and political consequences, this issue also needs to be resolved through dialogue.
