EU envoy pushes Kosovo-Serbia normalization talks forward

The European Union’s special envoy for the Belgrade-Prishtina dialogue, Peter Sorensen, said Wednesday that meetings held in Kosovo a day earlier focused on advancing the process of normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Sorensen held separate talks with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and newly appointed Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca, CE Report quotes ATA.

“I visited Kosovo for productive discussions with Prime Minister Kurti and the newly appointed Foreign Minister Konjufca. We focused on advancing the normalisation of relations with Serbia, delivering on commitments, and ensuring stability and progress on the European path,” Sorensen wrote on social media platform X.

Following the meeting, Kurti said Kosovo remained committed to normalising relations with Serbia through mutual recognition.

Konjufca informed Sorensen that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora would lead the dialogue process launched in 2011 to normalise ties with Belgrade, although the Ministry did not specify whether Foreign Minister would personally head the talks.

Political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri told Radio Free Europe that transferring leadership of the dialogue to the Foreign Ministry could mark “new momentum,” but cautioned that progress would depend on the parties’ “readiness to compromise and be realistic.”

He said the dialogue should be the Kosovo government’s main project in the coming months and that, if confirmed as chief negotiator, Konjufca could bring new energy to the process. However, Muhaxhiri warned that Konjufca should not remain, as he put it, “in Kurti’s shadow,” arguing that such an approach would prolong what he described as the current “negative” state of affairs.

Kosovo and Serbia have held multiple rounds of EU-facilitated talks at chief negotiator level in recent years, but no high-level political meeting has taken place since September 2023.

The last such meeting was held days before an armed incident in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo, in which a group of armed Serbs killed a Kosovo police officer. Kosovo has blamed Serbia for the attack, an accusation Belgrade denies.

More than a decade of EU-mediated dialogue has produced a series of agreements, though not all have been implemented.

In 2023, the parties agreed on the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation, also known as the Ohrid Agreement. Although the deal was not formally signed, the EU has said it is binding on both sides, but it has yet to be fully implemented.