Borrell: Kosovo agreed to immediately start the process of establishing an appropriate level of self-governance for Serbs

The EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced this evening that at the highest level meeting within the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Kosovo and Serbia agreed on an implementation annex on the way to the normalization of relations.

At the end of the new round of dialogue on the European plan, Borrell said that it had been a long day.

"You know that the goal of this day was for Kosovo and Serbia to agree on how to implement the agreement that was accepted at the last meeting on February 27 in Brussels. The agreement was reached at the end of February, and today the topic was how to implement it. That means there were talks about the practical steps when what and who should do it. Sometimes the devil is in the details, but it's also in the calendar," he said.

Borrell said that they talked for 12 hours and that he can announce that an agreement has been reached on how to do it.

"I can announce that Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on an implementation annex on the way to the normalization of relations. As part of that annex, the parties undertook to respect all points of the agreement and implement all their assumed obligations quickly and in good faith," he emphasized.

He pointed out that the length of today's talks shows that no easy things were discussed.

Regarding CSM, he said that regarding Article 7, Kosovo accepted to immediately initiate the process of establishing guarantees and an appropriate level of self-governance for Serbs in Kosovo.

The parties, he says, also agreed on a declaration on missing persons as an urgent matter.

"I must admit that we proposed a more ambitious proposal for the annex, but the parties did not reach an agreement on the details of that proposal. This is because I believe that one side, Kosovo, had a lack of flexibility, and on the other side, because Serbia announced that it would not sign anything until Kosovo was ready to implement its obligations," he added.

Because of this, he pointed out, concessions were made, so no agreement was signed, but the annex will be considered an accepted by its publication.

"Despite the fact that the more ambitious text proposed at the beginning of today was not adopted, what the parties have accepted will become an integral part of their European path. In particular, I will immediately start the work of entering the appropriate annexes into Chapter 35 of Serbia and Kosovo's agenda on normalization. In this way, both parties will be obliged to fulfill the agreement because it will be part of the European path. Failure to fulfill obligations will have consequences," he said.

Borrell said that the dialogue was not only important for Kosovo and Serbia, but for the stability, security and prosperity of the entire region.

"Negotiations should be viewed in a broader geopolitical context. On Monday, I will inform the ministers of foreign affairs of the EU, and then the leaders at the Council of the Union, about the agreement reached and the engagement of both parties in the rapid implementation of the commitments," he said.

This agreement and the annex that is part of the agreement are an important step towards achieving normality, he said, adding that the EU will continue to work on reaching a comprehensive agreement on the normalization of relations.