The emissary of the European Union, Miroslav Lajcak, was asked yesterday about the letter of the former Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Bärnabić, sent to the European External Action Service (EEAS), who wrote that “the normalization agreement does not represent a legal treaty under international law”.
German journalist Michael Martens asked the emissary saying that “if Serbia has such a position then what is the EU negotiating”.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Kurti refused a meeting with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, precisely for this reason – he demanded that Serbia withdraw the letter from Bërnabič, sign the agreement and hand over the terrorist Milan Radočić to then move towards implementation. Lajçak, responding to these issues, said that the EU constantly repeats in meetings that Radoicic does not have immunity and that he must be held accountable. Then he addressed Kurti’s requests for formalization of the agreement and Bërnabiq’s letter in more detail.
“As a representative of the EU, he can give the definition of what normalization means, as it is in the EU document, which falls to him, to facilitate and help Kosovo and Serbia sign a legally binding agreement that will normalize relations between them and resolve the existing open issues between them. It is up to the parties, Kosovo and Serbia, to define what normalization means, but when we say legally binding agreements, this means a lot,” he said.
“Secondly, the agreement we reached last year in February/March in Brussels and then in Ohrid, is a legally binding agreement in its entirety. The parties were told and they agreed with this during our meeting in Ohrid that it was done in line with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which states that the agreement can be normalized by signature or another way agreed upon by the parties, in this case it is formalized through the statement of High Representative Borell”, he emphasized.
According to the diplomat who is expected to facilitate the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue by January, the EU has said many times that the agreement is legally binding in its entirety and first of all the provisions of this agreement have become part of chapter 35 for Serbia, part of the formal relations between Serbia and the EU.
“So we’re wasting a lot of time discussing something that’s really not that relevant. What is relevant is that we have made very little progress or hiccups in implementing this agreement. This is the key issue,” he added.
“I don’t think we should be drawn into a legal discussion. We have made it clear that it is legal and we have said it many times. When you look at this from a political and logical perspective, Kosovo and Serbia must normalize their relations, otherwise they will not make progress on the European path, and the agreement we reached in Ohrid is the path to normalization,” Lajçak emphasized.
