Kosovo's PM blames EU envoy for failed negotiations with Serbia

The prime minister of Kosovo has put the blame on the European Union's special envoy for the failure of the recent normalization talks with Serbia, accusing him of being biased and "coordinating with Belgrade against Pristina".

As reported by AP, PM Albin Kurti alleged on September 18 that EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak had coordinated with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic in the EU-facilitated talks held last week in Brussels.

This statement was made following the assessment given by EU foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell, who supervised the latest talks, that it is Kurti who blocked the talks from progressing further.

According to diplomat Borrell, Kurti insisted that Serbia should essentially recognize his country before progress could be made on the enforcement of a previous agreement reached in February. He further noted, that the representative of Kosovo "was not ready to move forward" with setting up an association of Serb-majority municipalities to which Pristina committed during a 10-year-long EU-sponsored dialogue with Belgrade.

Caliber.Az recalls, that the latest rounds of negotiations occurred against the backdrop of rising tension over the dispute after clashes erupted following ethnic Albanians being appointed mayors in the north of Kosovo, where Serbs make up the majority. This came after local elections, which had a turnout of only 3.5% due to a boycott by the Serbian population, which makes up only 10% of the whole of Kosovo.