Senior advisor to the US State Department, Derek Chollet, said that the leaders of Kosova and Serbia need to make difficult decisions and need courage, so that they can put aside the divisions and do what is in the best interest of their country.

In an interview for the Voice of America, Chollet said that the European Union’s proposal for an eventual agreement is a proposal in the right direction.

“I don’t want to deal with the details of what the EU has proposed. I think that sometimes, in any negotiation, it is better to leave these details behind closed doors until they are ready. But we think that the EU has presented an achievable objective, a good direction. Again, it will be difficult. It will take a lot of work. It will take tough decisions and courage from leaders to put aside divisions and do what is in the best interest of their country,” Chollet said.

“And both leaders, in Kosovo and Serbia, have expressed their desire to be on the path to greater integration in the Euro-Atlantic community. We strongly support that desire. We want to see them take steps to achieve this objective and we want to do what we can to help them achieve this”, he added.

The EU proposal, also known as the Franco-German plan, foresees equal rights for Kosova and Serbia, respect for territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, recognition of state symbols and a special arrangement for the Serbian community in Kosova.

However, in the text of the proposal, mutual recognition between Kosova and Serbia is not mentioned.

Chollet is soon expected to visit Serbia, but also Kosova and North Macedonia. During this visit, he said he will talk to the leaders on the recent tensions between Kosova and Serbia. He said that it is good news that the barricades in the north of Kosova have been removed, but he emphasized that it is important not to repeat such crises.

“Far more than necessary energy has been expended over the past few weeks to prevent the crisis from worsening and escalating into something that no one wanted to see, violence. Instead, the diplomatic energy should have been focused on the future of Kosova and Serbia, the proposal for normalization presented by the EU, which will be based on mutual recognition, should have been discussed. This is the direction for Kosova and Serbia to reach their Euro-Atlantic destination,” said Chollet.

For 20 days in a row, in December of last year, groups of local Serbs blocked the roads in the north of Kosovo, as a sign of dissatisfaction for the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, Dejan Pantic, who, according to the authorities, is suspected of organizing the attack on the offices of the Central Election Commission in the north of Kosova, inhabited by a majority of Serbs.

However, the decision of the justice authorities in Kosova on December 28 to change Pantic’s security measure from detention to house arrest, paved the way for the removal of the barricades. After that, the representatives of the Serbs in Kosova declared that their demands for the removal of the barricades had been met.

Chollet in this interview for the Voice of America also spoke about the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority. In that regard, Kosova and Serbia have reached two agreements during the dialogue process mediated by the EU.

The senior American official emphasized that the Association “is a priority for us”.

“We have been very clear about this. We believe that it is a commitment that has been undertaken and that must be fulfilled. It is clearly a key step. But there are many other issues. Both parties here have obligations. Both sides have things we’d like to see move forward. That’s why we have to have these conversations as early as possible,” underlined the advisor of the US State Department, Derek Chollet.

/a.p./