Scholz, Macron and Meloni: Kosovo should make the Association, Serbia the de-facto recognition

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have requested that Kosovo start the procedures for the establishment of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, according to the draft statute proposed by the international community on October 21, and that Serbia implement the recognition de facto.

"In order to achieve rapid progress in implementation, we call on Kosovo to start the procedure for the establishment of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, as described in the draft statute, while Serbia implements de-facto recognition. Formalities, including those related to adoption, should not stand in the way of progress on this issue," said a public letter from the three European leaders, released Friday afternoon.

In the letter, commenting on Thursday's meetings in Brussels, with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, the European leaders have said that they welcome the commitment of "both sides".

"We have taken into account the comments made by both the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia on the European statute for the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo and their expressed readiness for implementation. The draft statute that we have presented and push forward in full, includes a modern European way to handle the sensitive issue of minority protection, in accordance with the best European practices and standards, within the parameters defined by the parties," the published letter states. on the website of the German Chancellery.

"Therefore, once again we underline our expectation from the parties to implement their commitments to implement the Agreement on the road to normalization. The implementation phase should progress with both parties performing their obligations in parallel in a step-by-step manner, based on the principle that both parties do something to get something. The focus should now be on advancing the full implementation of the Agreement, without preconditions or delays," the letter states.

also Arberi December 26, 2023 Kurti receives a letter from Macron, Scholzi and Meloni before the meeting in Brussels, they also mention the Association

In the end, the three leaders have emphasized that they expect Kosovo and Serbia to quickly agree on the details of the dialogue and have added that since there is a lack of progress in the normalization of relations, "both sides risk losing important opportunities".