The EU has presented a new proposal to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the text was handed over to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti shortly before the EU-Western Balkans summit in Albania on Tuesday. Serious discussions should now begin. Borrell initially did not comment on the content in the Albanian capital Tirana.
The EU has been trying for years to help clarify the relationship between the two neighbours. Now inhabited almost exclusively by Albanians, Kosovo split from Serbia in 1999 with NATO help and declared independence in 2008. More than a hundred countries, including Austria, recognize independence. Others such as Serbia, Russia and China, but also five EU countries have not done so to this day.
Serbia must accept independence
Borrell said the new proposal was made with the support of Germany and France. Government representatives from Berlin and Paris recently suggested that Serbia should not recognize independence, but accept it. Specifically, this should mean that Belgrade will no longer block Kosovo’s membership of international organisations. In return, Serbia could receive substantial financial and economic assistance from the EU.
Nehammer praises EU-Balkan action plan
In the field of migration, a package of measures had previously been agreed with which the The EU Commission wants to counter the “increased migratory pressure” along the Western Balkan routes. “We have to act and get the numbers down,” Vice President Margaritis Schinas said in Brussels on Monday. Border controls need to be strengthened, asylum procedures need to be speeded up and “everyone who arrives irregularly needs to be registered,” EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said when presenting the action plan.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) described the European Commission’s action plan for the Balkan route as the “first important step” on Tuesday. Nehammer emphasized on Tuesday when he arrived at the EU Western Balkans Summit in Tirana that Austria is not only concerned with the Western Balkan route, but also with the migration route via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria. He reiterated his no to Schengen enlargement to Bulgaria and Romania.
Measures against human smugglers and co.
The plan includes 20 measures. The EU Commission wants to support the countries of the Western Balkans in asylum and registration procedures and in “ensuring appropriate reception conditions”. For the coming year, Johansson announced a program to assist the Western Balkan countries with “voluntary and involuntary” repatriations. The Commissioner called a pilot program with Bosnia and Herzegovina “quite successful” and is now being expanded to the other states.
That is why attention is also paid to combating human trafficking. A newly deployed Europol task force will work specifically on the border between Hungary and Serbia, Johansson said. In addition, Frontex employees would not only work on the external borders.
Source: Krone
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