- September 07, 2022
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- September 07, 2022
On September 7, 2022, the Aspen Institute Germany cooperated with the Kosovo Think Tank “Group for Legal and Political Studies” to host a roundtable discussion on the topic “Evaluating Kosovo’s Position in the Dialogue with Serbia: What is at Stake?” with Arbër Fetahu, Research Fellow, Group for Legal and Political Studies, GLPS, and Dr. Frédéric Jörgens, Deputy Head of Division 209 Western Balkans, German Federal Foreign Office. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner, Executive Director, Aspen Institute Germany.
In 2011, three years after Kosovo declared its independence, the EU started to facilitate a dialog between Kosovo and Serbia which aims for a comprehensive, legally binding normalization agreement. Normalization is essential for both sides to be able to move forward on their path to the EU. While numerous agreements have been signed since then, hardly any progress has been made on normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Recently, tensions had increased after the government in Kosovo ordered new regulations for people entering with Serbian identity documents and for vehicles with Serbian license plates. After a short period of time, the measures were suspended and only recently an agreement was reached. Nevertheless, the situation has been extremely tense ever since. Therefore, this discussion addressed the following questions: What are the next steps? What risks may arise from the current tensions? What is the role of civil society in Kosovo? How can relations between Kosovo and Serbia be normalized? What is the role of the media? What role do Germany and the EU play?
