Scholz and Macron send letters to leaders of Serbia and Kosovo to address Balkan crisis

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have sent Serbia’s President Alexander Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti letters to ease tensions in the Balkan region.

Both European leaders have announced, through these two missives, that they have assigned one foreign policy advisor each to support the European Union’s special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak. They have also suggested a tripartite visit – the two advisors and the envoy of the European bloc – to the capitals of the two countries.

The letter, sent by Scholz and Macron at a “crucial moment for security on the European continent and for stability in the Western Balkan region,” is an appeal to both countries to take “difficult decisions” to unblock the situation, the Kosovar daily ‘Bota Sot’ has reported.

In this way, they have made it clear that the open conflict between the two countries affects European security and, for this, they have taken as a reference the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which “challenges” the continent in economic and political terms.

In the letter to Vucic also highlighted the lack of constructive measures taken by the Executive to try to alleviate the tension in Kosovo, so they have urged the Serbian side to promote dialogue with the European Union.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic is in Kosovo on Monday, where she will visit several municipalities in northern Kosovo inhabited by the majority of Serbs and will meet with representatives of the Kosovo Serbs.

On the other hand, Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi and Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Arbërie Nagavci will visit the Presheva Valley in southern Serbia on the same day.

It should be recalled that Serbia and Kosovo staged another episode in their long-standing confrontation since the Kosovar authorities planned to stop recognizing Serbian identity documents in early August. Serbian authorities do not recognize Kosovar documents.

Following the conflict between the two countries, the EU reached an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo to end the crisis opened by the controversial Kosovar law that imposes people coming from Serbia to change their license plates and hand over their identity documents, to be replaced by others issued in Pristina.