Bilateral isn’t working, so…

Yesterday Serbian President Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti failed to reach any further agreement at their umpteenth meeting of the EU-sponsored Belgrade/Pristina dialogue in Brussels. The two leaders merely reiterated a longstanding pledge to deal with the outstanding issue of missing persons from the 1998/99 Serbian repression and Kosovo rebellion. The best that can be hoped is that they will now fulfill that pledge.

Prime Minister Kurti explicitly rejected a Serbian government proposal to create an Association of Serb-majority Municipalities (ASM) inside Kosovo. Suzana Starikov (@Intetyst) reports that he called it:

fundamentally incompatible w/Constitution, w/democratic & European values, w/human & minority rights according to European standards

https://twitter.com/Intetyst/status/1653506908421070852/photo/1

That is a thoroughgoing repudiation. Petrit Selimi reports:

The statute of Association proposed by the Management Team led by a Serbian MP doesn’t pass, what one diplomat called a “laughability test”. Belgrade wants ASM to “execute laws”, “organize referendums”, “establish institutions & agencies”. It’s a non-starter in 90% of content.

https://twitter.com/Petrit/status/1653683292661579777/photo/1

Kosovo seems not to have put forward its own proposal, despite many urgings to do so.

The bilateral approach just isn’t working

The EU is warning about possible violence due to this stalemate. That is realistic. Belgrade has several times in the past year or so precipitated violence in Serb-majority northern Kosovo. Serbia is trying its best to demonstrate that Kosovo cannot govern there and to get the Americans and Europeans to convince Pristina to let Belgrade do it through the ASM. Kurti isn’t buying, not only because he wants to protect Kosovo’s sovereignty and territorial integrity but also because Serbia, the US and the EU are offering him little in exchange.

The plain fact is that the “bilateral” Kosovo/Serbia dialogue isn’t working. It is tempting to say no one is to blame, but it would be more accurate to say they all are. The Europeans have failed to make accession attractive. The Americans have simply shifted to appeasing Belgrade and beating on Pristina. Belgrade isn’t really interested in anything but maintaining de facto authority over Serbs in Kosovo. Pristina is demanding apologies and recognition from Serbia that they know Belgrade won’t provide. It’s what the US military terms a goat rope, or more expressively FUBAR. Or the conflict management nerds would say there is no ZOPA (zone of possible agreement).

Try something else

There are other options. The multilateral approach–involving all six of the non-EU members of the Western Balkans–has been far more successful. The so-called Berlin process last year produced highly popular agreements on mutual recognition of identity cards, university diplomas and professional qualifications. Both Serbia and Kosovo have ratified these agreements, though of course it remains to be seen whether and how they implement them. These latest agreements come on top of the commitment to a Common Regional Market (CRM), which aims to free up movement of goods, services, people, and capital in preparation for EU accession. The CRM also envisages regional investment, digital, and industrial and innovation areas.

It would be reasonable to hope that success multilaterally would focus minds. It did. Serbia has proposed Open Balkans, a regional scheme without the EU mediation it intends to dominate, along with Albania. That isn’t going far. Serbia won’t invite Kosovo on an equal basis with the others participating, so Kosovo won’t even consider joining. Montenegro is thinking about it. And the Bosnians as usual can’t agree one way or the other. Without the Europeans in the mix, it is hard to get the Balkanites to do much, especially when they are rightly suspicious of the organizers’ intentions. In any event, much of what Open Balkans might do is already included in the Berlin process.

Time to move the show

Kosovo and Serbia are simply not ready to do for each other what each needs to improve relations. Serbia has turned eastward internationally and less democratic domestically. Its state-influenced press whips up anti-Albanian fervor on a daily basis. There is zero likelihood of an apology for the 1990s repression. Kosovo is pretty much united in rejecting any new infringements on its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Its constitution already provides guaranteed seats in parliament for Serbs as well as a large measure of self-governance for municipalities.

No “final” agreement is anywhere on the horizon. That is what the bilateral dialogue was supposed to produce. So it is time to move the Serbia/Kosovo show to where it might be more productive. The Berlin process is the right place. Embedded in a multilateral context in which Berlin plays an important role, Kurti and Vucic might both play nicer.