The Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue Between Achievements, Setbacks, and Unknowns

The normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia remains one of the most complex issues in the Western Balkans. Initiated in 2011 by the then EEAS Counsellor Robert Cooper and continued by Catherine Ashton the first meeting between the Prime Ministers of Serbia and Kosovo took place in October 2012. Though mostly focused on the technical level and faced with a lot of pushbacks internally, this initiative marked a significant milestone that led to reaching multiple agreements. These agreements serve as a basis for fostering what is called the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue to date.

While the tasks for reaching full normalization of relations between the two countries are challenging and multifold, it required the involvement of the EU to serve as the main facilitator to enhance a communication channel between the counterparts which previously had no sustainable platform to negotiate or even communicate directly. Indeed, the EU still serves as the main bridge of communication between the parties. However, with the EU as a facilitator, and sometimes also with the (in)direct involvement of the US, much of the work remains at the hands of the counterparts themselves, namely the Governments of Kosovo and Serbia. For the two countries to move forward with EU accession, the progress on the Dialogue, among other issues, is a precondition to unlock that path. While the parties remain periodically invested in the process, which has been marked by waves of progress and oftentimes regress, as is perceived today, the process has stagnated and is characterized by uncertainty, particularly under the present geopolitical circumstances. There are a lot of blame games by the counterparts on who is more committed to the Dialogue, who is making more or fewer concessions, and a lot of questions on the objectivity, seriousness, and capacity of the EU to handle the negotiations. To provide a balanced approach on how the Dialogue is perceived and what the dynamics of the last four years have been, this paper includes a combination of two analyses by two experienced analysts from Kosovo and from Serbia.

Both analyses tackle a range of issues and address questions such as: what are the internal and external factors affecting the Dialogue dynamics, what have been the main achievements and setbacks in the past four years, what are the main tradeoffs for the parties to negotiate, and what are the challenges to overcoming the current stalemate. For the purpose of providing an analysis that merges both perspectives, this first part of this paper is split into five chapters that seek to deconstruct the overall picture of the Dialogue.

a) The Dialogue as seen from Kosovo’s and Serbia’s viewpoints.

b) The main achievements and setbacks of the past four years.

c) Challenges and internal and external factors affecting Dialogue dynamics.

d) EU’s (and the US’s) role in restarting and maintaining the Dialogue.

e) Expectations for the way forward.

This report is part of a project supported by NED (National Endowment for Democracy), titled “Increasing Government Transparency and Accountability in Interethnic Dialogue,” and implemented by KCSS. The authors wrote the specific chapters within their own capacities. As such, the views represented in this report do not necessarily represent the views of KCSS or NED.