Graovac: Both Pristina and EU have obligation to form CSM, but Washington's determination will be crucial

Serbia does not intend to continue talks on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina until the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities is formed, which Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti still refuses to do and insists that at the end of the process, there can be only mutual recognition, Kurir reports.

These are the frameworks in which the EU Special Representative for Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, is coming to Belgrade today, as he was previously in Pristina, all as part of the preparations for the new meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kurti on March 18 in Ohrid.

Srdjan Graovac from the Center for Social Stability reminds that not only Pristina but also the EU, as the third signatory to the Brussels Agreement, has the obligation to form the CSM.

"That's exactly why it was very unpleasant to listen to Lajcak, who, after the conversation with Kurti in Pristina, tries to relativize it and reject the obligation that the CSM must be implemented first. I don't see that there can be any progress at this moment precisely because of those most recent Lajcak's statements, it even seems to me that they, along with Kurti's messages, are an indication that progress on that front is impossible. I am more and more convinced that a change of government in Pristina is inevitable in order to reach an agreement on the CSM. What worries me is that the European negotiators are even ready to meet Kurti, who rejects the CSM. They do not have the determination to make Kurti implement it. Washington's determination will be crucial. If it is in the interests of the Americans to make a deal, then they will take the key role. EU definitely proves to be incapable of leading this process," Graovac says.

Former diplomat Branko Brankovic indicates that political procrastination is at work in everything currently related to Kosovo.

"I don't expect anything to happen in Ohrid. They will talk and return home because the Americans and the entire Western world are waiting to see what will happen in Ukraine and how that whole thing will end. Kurti's story and the fact that Lajcak is now coming out with some 15 proposals are political stalling and preventing any progress. Especially given the political situation the West is in, they can't expect us to make any concessions regarding Kosovo. Because it doesn't suit them, they are actually postponing all these talks until the Ukraine situation is cleared up," Brankovic says.