Kosovo's PM Kurti fails to commit to negotiation date with Serbia

Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti listens to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell during a joint news conference at the EEAS building in Brussels
Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti listens to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell during a joint news conference at the EEAS building in Brussels Copyright Credit: AP
By Jack Parrock
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The new prime minister of Kosovo wrapped up two days of meeting in Brussels without committing to a firm date to return for negotiations with Serbia.

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Kosovo's prime minister has wrapped up meetings in Brussels without committing to a firm date to return for negotiations with Serbia.

Albin Kurti was in the Belgian capital for two days on his first international trip, but the Balkan premier failed to say if he would be returning on May 11, as the European Union had hoped, in order to resume talks with Belgrade.

Serbia doesn't recognise Kosovo as an independent country and the EU is trying to broker a deal between the two neighbours.

"We need more information and documents regarding previous agreements and processes in general, to dwell upon it in order to prepare ourselves," Kurti told reporters on Thursday.

Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia's president, was also in Brussels earlier this week and agreed to resume talks with the new government in Pristina.

The bloc has been accused at times of not doing enough to help Western Balkan countries, which the EU's foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said was untrue.

"I'm a bit fed up with the story of not delivering, not supporting enough, and not helping," he said. "There is a long record of financial support, but it seems not to be taken into consideration."

The past few weeks have been marred by two so-called non-papers, which allegedly come from EU governments suggesting a rewrite of borders in the Western Balkans.

But Engjellushe Morina from the European Council on Foreign Relations says these documents should be ignored.

"We see that some of the countries are kind of more prosperous in their path into the EU, but the others are left behind - like Bosnia and Kosovo. And while the situation stays like this, there is always this void to be filled in by external actors, but also by these very silly non-papers, which I hope will be just brushed aside and not taken seriously," Morina told Euronews.

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