(Bloomberg) -- Kosovo is only interested in a definitive agreement that would reconcile its ties with Serbia and wants to avoid a deal made up of incremental steps, President Vjosa Osmani said.
Kosovo received the latest European Union amendment of a draft agreement proposal only hours earlier and needed more time to study it, Osmani said in an interview in the Albanian capital Tirana late on Tuesday.
“We should not seek for small steps, but we should seek for all steps to be resolved within a final agreement,” said Osmani, a 40 year-old US-educated law professor and a close ally of Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
A senior EU official, who spoke in Tirana on condition of anonymity, said the tweaked proposal includes a gradual approach to a final normalization settlement, with hopes of reaching it within a year.
The EU is trying to restart negotiations between the Balkan neighbors. Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, sees the standoff as a test of its ability to govern over all people living within its borders. Serbia, which refuses to recognize Kosovo, has said the majority ethnic-Albanian government wasn’t respecting the rights of ethnic Serbs.
Osmani, who was elected to the largely ceremonial position last year, urged Serbia to avoid picking and choosing what suits one side but not the other in the effort. She pointed to lessons from Bosnia, a state whose functioning has been crippled by the post-war political arrangement.
“The lessons from Bosnia are out there for all of us, not just for those of us living in the region for, but for the European Union and other partners,” she said.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Advertisement