EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who supervised the talks in Brussels, blamed the latest breakdown on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s insistence that Serbia should essentially recognize his country before progress can be made on enforcing an agreement they reached in February.
In May, in a dispute over the validity of local elections in the Serbian part of northern Kosovo, Serbs clashed with security forces, including NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers working there, injuring 93 troops.
Last week, KFOR commander Maj. Gen. Angelo Michele Ristuccia warned that his forces “are living a time frame of constant crisis management.” He said that tensions between Belgrade and Pristina are so high that even “the most insignificant event can create a situation.”
“I am sorry to say we are running out of time,” Borrell said, and he urged both parties to work toward easing tensions and allow new elections in northern Kosovo as soon as possible, saying: “we cannot sit and wait for the next crisis.”
In August, senior lawmakers from the United States — the other diplomatic power in the process — warned that negotiators aren’t pushing the Serbian leader hard enough.
Vucic, a former ultranationalist who now claims to want to take Serbia into the EU, has maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has refused to impose sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine.
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