Andric Rakic: The proposed law for the U.S. to suspend all aid to Kosovo an additional guarantee for the implementation of the agreement

The adoption of a law supporting the Brussels Agreement, which would entail withholding any form of U.S. aid to Kosovo until it fulfills its obligations from the dialogue with Serbia, as proposed by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, could be one form of international guarantees for implementing existing agreements, Milica Andric Rakic, the Program Manager of the NGO New Social Initiative, said for Kosovo Online.

"It is a form of one of the possible international guarantees for implementing existing agreements. However, since the U.S. is not directly involved as a mediator in the dialogue, I am not sure it will be easy to gather appropriate support within U.S. legislative institutions to actually adopt the proposed law," she emphasized.

Andric Rakic says that this is quite similar to the announcement from the European Union about an aid package for the Western Balkans.

"There is already talk of a similar model, where financial support packages for countries in the Western Balkans, including both Serbia and Kosovo, would only be unlocked when certain criteria are met. Most of them are related to the dialogue, but not necessarily all. It is assumed that in the case of Kosovo, the criteria will also be related to the position of non-majority communities and all the criticisms that the EU has, not only outlined in the European Commission's report but also in the preliminary report of the Council of Europe. That is the way obligations from the dialogue will apparently be approached, by conditioning financial support, but perhaps not necessarily from the U.S., as they are not direct mediators in the dialogue nor have they ever shown any intention to take on a larger role, except during Donald Trump's time," our interlocutor noted.

She believes that the possible re-election of Trump as U.S. president could lead to a change in attitudes toward the dialogue.

"That was a key difference between Republicans and Democrats in their approach to the dialogue. The Trump administration had many criticisms of the EU's work, and they essentially tried to shift the negotiation process out of Europe and take responsibility for that process in Washington. The Biden administration did the opposite; even during the campaign, they announced that when it comes to the Western Balkans, they will follow the steps of the EU, which included how the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia will unfold," Andric Rakic concluded.