The European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) are working to change the framework of negotiations with Serbia for its accession to the European Union (EU). This aims to include the implementation of agreements reached with Kosovo in the dialogue mediated by the EU among the binding conditions.
“Work in this direction is ongoing in line with the request of the EU member states,” said the spokesperson of the EU, Peter Stano, on Tuesday in a press conference in Brussels.
The formal request to change the conditions in Chapter 35 was made by EU member states in the conclusions adopted by the General Affairs Council in December.
Since 2011, the EU has mediated the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. This process is also supported by the United States.
Last year, the parties reached the Agreement on the Roadmap for the normalization of relations and its Annex. Despite international pressure for the parties to implement the agreement, the European bloc has stated that it is not being implemented.
The inclusion of the obligation to normalize relations with Kosovo in the framework of accession negotiations to the EU was mentioned by senior officials of the bloc as a way to make the agreement reached in Brussels on February 27 and later on March 18 in Ohrid, the annex for its implementation, to become “legally binding”.
The EU insists that, according to the Vienna Convention, even agreements that are the result of reconciliation and are not signed have the legal obligation for the parties. And this, according to the EU, applies to the Agreement of last year on the normalization of relations.
However, a letter from the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, in which she confirmed in December that there are red lines when it comes to the implementation of the Agreement on the Roadmap for the normalization of relations with Kosovo, represents the first time that this state in writing declares that it will not implement some provisions of this agreement.
A few days ago, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that Europe is asking Serbia to recognize the independence of Kosovo.
“De facto or de jure. This is being asked. Let’s not lie about this. The most powerful, the European Union, is asking for this,” Vučić said on Pink TV on January 7.
