“The absence of the normalisation of relations between Pristina and Belgrade continues to hold back both partners on their European path,” a declaration adopted at the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Brussels in December said.
“All agreements reached in the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue must be implemented, in particular the Agreement on the Path to Normalisation and its Annex,” the declaration urged.
It highlighted that financial support for Kosovo and Serbia under the Western Balkans Reform and Growth Facility “is conditioned on the partners’ constructive engagement with measurable progress and tangible results in the normalisation of their relations”.
The statement refers to the March 2023 verbal agreement reached between Kosovo’s and Serbia’s leaders, Albin Kurti and Aleksandar Vucic, brokered under European Union auspices. This laid out seven steps to implement a document reached the previous month, which committed both states to “normal, good-neighbourly relations with each other on the basis of equal rights” – a quarter-century after Kosovo broke away from Serbia and 15 years after it declared independence.
Almost three years on, neither the deal nor its annex have been implemented.
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