Maliqi: Sending the verbal note senseless; accusing the mediator in the dialogue was Kurti's big mistake

Political analyst Shkelzen Maliqi assessed for Kosovo Online that sending a "verbal note" to the permanent representatives of 27 EU member states in which Kosovo complained about the bias of the European emissary Miroslav Lajcak was senseless, and he called the accusation of mediators in the dialogue a big mistake of Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

Yesterday, the Embassy of Kosovo in Brussels sent an eight-page verbal note to all EU countries in which Special Envoy Miroslav Lajcak is accused of being biased in the dialogue. Previously, Kurti sent letters of similar content to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

"There was an assessment that this kind of reaction and content was amateurish. Very sharp reactions immediately arrived from the USA in connection with these criticisms of Lajcak, and it was roughly said - 'he is our man, he works in coordination with us'". You cannot blame the mediators who have the mandate to negotiate. It's pointless, it's Albin Kurti's big mistake," Maliqi said.

He points out that Kurti is trying to prove with these letters that the EU mediators are on the side of Serbia.

"I saw that people close to Self-Determination make some kind of tables, how many proposals were pro-Serbian, how many were pro-Albanian, and then it always turns out that the mediators were more in favor of Serbia. That's ridiculous, either you're in favor of an agreement and want to resolve this situation, or you're not. In principle, Albin Kurti accepted the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities and all those important demands. And now, with procedures, whether this or that will come first, there is certainly a process. The CSM cannot be formed right away, but the formation can start, and other things can go in parallel, if there is a concept. That's how I understood the road map they proposed," Maliqi said.

He notes that when entering into any compromises, one should stay within those limits.

"It is not good to now move on to 'ad hominem' arguments - Lajcak is not good, because he is from Slovakia, which does not recognize Kosovo. There were such remarks from the beginning, but there was still a lot of trust in him. Lajcak is not a negotiator, he has experience in those processes, for example around the referendum in Montenegro. These are some things that should be ignored if you want peace, security, and stability," Maliqi said, and pointed out that "Kurti has problems with the West in general and that it is no longer only the USA in question".