Kosovo Targets Deal With Serbia This Year to Help Bid to Join EU

(Bloomberg) -- Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said he believes 2019 will be the year his nation reaches a comprehensive agreement with Serbia that will mend ties between the former foes and pave the way for both to join the European Union.

“I want to believe that 2019 will be the year of the agreement,” Thaci said in an interview in Munich on Saturday through a translator. “This is the best way forward for our countries and for the whole western Balkans.”

The deal, first mentioned by his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic last year, will close “all outstanding issues between Kosovo and Serbia” according to Thaci. It will include a “border demarcation, defining the border between Kosovo and Serbia,” he said.

Relations between the two nations have deteriorated since last year when Serbia blocked Kosovo’s entry into Interpol, the international police organization, and Kosovo introduced trade tariffs on Serbian goods, which are still in place.

The former Yugoslav republic of Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. Many Serbs regard the former province as the cradle of their culture and the two sides fought a war in the late 1990s.

When asked why he was optimistic that their differences can now be overcome, Thaci said there’s a “new momentum with increased focus and attention by the EU, the United States and other international partners to reach an agreement, especially the United States.”

Asked whether the pressure was on to have the deal ready before European Parliament elections in May, he said: “The sooner the better.”

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.