(ANSA-AFP) - OHRID, MAR 19 - Kosovo and Serbia stopped short
of signing a potentially landmark deal late Saturday night after
holding a marathon round of talks, even as the EU hailed
progress toward reaching a long-sought agreement between the
arch-foes. The latest round of high-stakes negotiations followed
months of EU-mediated shuttle diplomacy, nearly 25 years after
the war between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Serb forces
sparked a NATO bombing campaign that ended the conflict and saw
Serbian government personnel and security forces pull out from
the breakaway territory. Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti and
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic engaged in negotiations for
nearly 12 hours during a summit in North Macedonia's Ohrid,
picking over an 11-point plan unveiled by the EU last month
during a Brussels summit. But in the end, they failed to iron
out a final agreement that could be signed by both. Following
the talks, EU foreign policy chief Josep C, saying a framework
to implement the plan had been reached but a path toward
normalisation of ties remained elusive. "The parties were not
able to find a mutually acceptable solution as ambitious as we
were providing or proposing," said Borrell, even as he hailed
reaching a deal that went unsigned in the end. Serbia has long
refused to recognise Kosovo's unilateral declaration of
independence made in 2008, with perennial bouts of unrest
erupting between Belgrade and its former breakaway province.
Following Saturday's talks, the two leaders both admitted that
progress had been made but were quick to unleash barbs at the
other over the failure to put pen to paper. Kosovo's Kurti said
he was ready to sign the document, but blamed Serbia's leader
for failing to sign off on the plan for a second time. "The
other side, just as in the last meeting in Brussels on February
27, is avoiding signing the agreement, now also with the annex,"
Kurti told reporters. "It is now up to the European Union to
find a mechanism to make the status of this agreement legally
and internationally binding." Serbia's Vucic was lukewarm about
the day's results. "I think we have made one important step in a
constructive atmosphere and we will start to work on something.
Of course, it was not some D-day but it was an okay day," said
Vucic. - EU pressure - The 11-point document backed by the EU
has laid out a framework stating that neither side would resort
to violence to resolve a dispute, nor seek to prevent the other
from joining the European Union or other international bodies --
a key demand from Kosovo. It would also result in de-facto
recognition between the two sides, with Kosovo and Serbia
accepting the other's travel documents, diplomas, licence plates
and customs stamps. Kurti's administration hopes that an
agreement would allow for Kosovo's entry into international
institutions, especially the United Nations, a long-sought goal
for the government in Pristina. Serbia and Kosovo's leaders have
both admitted to being increasingly squeezed by Western
governments to come to an agreement after more than two decades
of acrimony. The mounting pressure comes as the EU and
Washington have reserved much of their diplomatic muscle for
addressing the conflict in Ukraine, spurring fears that the
Kremlin may use the Kosovo issue as a wedge to further divide
Europe. Kosovo remains an obsession among large swaths of the
Serbian population, who regard the territory as their rightful
homeland that has come under attack by outsiders for centuries.
In the Serbian capital Belgrade on Friday, thousands rallied
against striking an agreement. "This ultimatum ... it's not an
agreement, it's a betrayal," Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski,
head of the ultranationalist group the Oath Keepers, told the
crowd. Kosovo is home to approximately 120,000 Serbs, many of
whom remain loyal to Belgrade -- especially in northern areas
near the border with Serbia where there are frequent bouts of
turmoil, protests and occasional violence. (ANSA-AFP).
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Kosovo and Serbia fail to sign agreement after marathon talk
EU hailed progress toward reaching a long-sought agreement