Maliqi: I expect the dialogue to continue after January, Brussels and Washington found a formula

Analyst from Pristina, Shkelzen Maliqi, expects the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue process to continue after January next year, which, in his opinion, would be a positive scenario, and he believes that Brussels and Washington have found a formula to unblock the negotiations.

"It can be expected that the process will continue, and a bit more intensively. The new measure by the Government of Serbia to allow entry into Serbia with Kosovo plates from January 1st is a kind of announcement that some agreements will be applied. I expect the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement to begin, and the part of the implementation that has apparently been negotiated in the meantime, what will be applied first and what will be applied later. That is a positive scenario," Maliqi says for Kosovo Online.

He adds that, on the other hand, for the last three or four years, there has been a blockade because, as he says, they have not moved on to the essence, i.e., "the fundamental agreement on status."

"The compromise with the Franco-German proposal is such that Serbia is not obliged to sign anything; it does not have to change the Constitution or recognize Kosovo, but that it recognizes it de facto because it will not create obstacles for passports, documents... According to this formula, we can move forward, but whether the Kosovo side will create obstacles remains to be seen. Kurti has softened his rhetoric now, saying that he will prepare the draft statute of the Community of Serb Municipalities himself," Maliqi says.

He expects the dialogue process to start by March, but due to the whole situation in Serbia and Kosovo, it is unpredictable in what way it will happen.

As he pointed out, the decision of the Serbian government to allow the movement of vehicles with RKS plates shows readiness to implement the agreements, but it remains to be seen what Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti will do, as he has started to "sit on two or three chairs."

"The Brussels administration, in cooperation with the American one, has found some formula. Now they say that neither a signature is needed, but only to implement what has been agreed. Some signs show that it is moving in that direction, and whether they will find a mechanism to unblock the dialogue, we will see. There is generally doubt in both Vucic and Kurti that they will try to do something about it. As for the mediators in the dialogue, they claim that everything is done," Maliqi added.

When asked about the realistic deadline given by the EU Special Representative for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, for the formalization of the Agreement on the normalization path, i.e., to be completed by the end of January, Maliqi said that this timeframe was optimal.

"The deadlines are realistic and can be accelerated. I heard that Kurti said that it was possible to finalize everything by March. So the deadlines are realistic, but they are not because politicians are unpredictable, and the situation is such that we expect elections in the US and the EU during the next year. The dialogue process will have to be completed before that, and I hope it will come to that. If it does not end by then, there may be a new situation where all agreements will have to wait," Maliqi concluded.