Eurasia Press & News
The German-language press mostly sees the agreement in principle between Belgrade and Pristina as a de facto recognition of Kosovo’s independence, but also states that it is not yet certain that Vučić will see the matter through to the end.
“Serbia and Kosovo have reached an important milestone on the long road to the normalization of their relations. But they haven’t reached it yet,” the respected Noje Zircher Zeitung assesses the result of the meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Aljbin Kurti in Brussels.
The paper assesses that the verbal agreement on the framework of the talks does not directly mention the “tricky issue” of Kosovo’s status, but it does go to the “de facto recognition of Kosovo by Serbia”.
Stating that, on the other hand, Pristina should form the Association of Serbian Municipalities, the Swiss paper reminds that both Kurti and Vučić have acted as hardliners so far.
“Kurti is in a more comfortable position. Although the concessions to Belgrade are unpopular in his country, any progress in establishing Kosovo as a normal member of the international community is a success,” writes Noje Zircher Zeitung.
“On the contrary, for Vučić, the factual recognition of Kosovo’s independence represents a drastic turn, after years of reaping the political fruits of this issue. “Kurti’s statement from Monday, that he was ready to sign the agreement, but that the other side was not,” adds the article.
Zuriški list concludes: “Although there was no major breakthrough, Monday’s meeting is at least a partial success of the West’s Balkan policy, which has been given new life.” It remains to be seen whether this momentum will last. The first positive signal for Pristina would be if one or several of the five EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo so far would finally make up for it.”
“One day and legal recognition”
Noje Zircher Zeitung also brings the comment of Andreas Ernst, previously a long-time correspondent from Belgrade: “Although Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his obedient boulevard media push it under the carpet, it is clear that Belgrade is coming to terms with the fact that it is on its territory after the 1998/99 war.” . a new state was created. It is hard to imagine that, after factual recognition of that fact, legal recognition will not follow one day.”
“Kosovo will have to face the fact that it is not enough to declare itself as a multi-ethnic state, as Prime Minister Kurti does. If the existence of the Serbian community in the country is important to Prishtina (for which there is no key evidence), then it must not put blocks in the way of its self-government. Even so, it is questionable whether the Serbian enclaves in the south have an economic future. It is very possible that in a couple of decades, only the church properties will remain witnesses of Serbian Kosovo,” writes Ernst.
The journalist adds that Putin’s aggression is to thank for the fact that the West was afraid of an open wing in the Balkans and hastened to compensate in a few months everything that was lost during ten years of slow negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. According to Ernst, the presented plan is largely a compromise, but:
“Its biggest flaw is that it was not negotiated by the warring parties, but comes completely from the side. Imposed solutions rarely survived in the Balkans. The proposal was Serbia’s duty, but it does not say what the solution should look like. She’s just repeating what she shouldn’t look like. Now others have made a move. The EU has been wasting its time in this region for too long,” concludes Ernst in his commentary in the Noje zircher Zeitung.
“Vučić plays on two pianos”
Tyroler Tageskejtung writes that the matter is not over yet and that the reasons should be sought in Serbia: “Its president Aleksandar Vučić has been playing two pianos for years. On the nationalist front, it is: uncompromising on the issue of Kosovo, close partnership with Russia, anti-Western prejudices, and an increasingly authoritarian style of government. This is exactly what the population in Serbia has been able to hear in recent years primarily through the state media and boulevard media close to Vučić.
The newspaper from Innsbruck goes on to write that Vučić plays other notes on the “European piano”, that Serbia is a candidate for membership, and the EU is the most important economic partner and donor, but that Brussels is seeking “solidarity with the European family” – that Serbia “actually gives up on Kosovo.” and choose a side in the geopolitical tug-of-war between East and West”.
It is added that after pressure from the West, Vučić agreed in principle to the normalization of relations with Pristina. “But in order to endear it to his clientele in Serbia, Vučić would now have to perform a political feat. It is not yet certain that he is willing and able to carry it out – without, if necessary, sitting down at another piano again.”
“Deal to the detriment of Kosovo”
A unique take on the subject in the German-language press comes from Erich Ratfelder, a correspondent for the Berlin Tageskeitung. He believes that the deal was to the detriment of Kosovo, and part of the West’s attempt to curry favor with Vučić and thus separate him from Putin. Ethnic lines of division, such as would be created by the Union of Serbian Municipalities, are particularly dangerous, Ratfelder assesses.
“Kosovar Aljbin Kurti should sign the contract with Serbia that is required by the EU and the USA. For weeks, the Albanians were under pressure. Certainly with the certainty that the Kosovo Albanians will do everything that the American diplomats ask. Because, without the security guarantees of the USA, Kosovo is nothing. That country cannot rely on Europe anyway. So, what else is left for Kurti but to sign and thereby destroy a pillar of his own policy,” the comment states.
The author believes that the West ignores democracy and human rights, supporting Vučić. “The policy of appeasement towards Serbia is already having negative consequences, not only in Kosovo, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia. “Vučić’s Serbian world can, just like Putin’s Russian world, rejoice at so much American naivety and European unprincipledness,” Ratfelder concludes.
