Serbia’s decision not to sign an agreement with Pristina has made even more evident how complicated are the talks being held in Brussels. To put it straight, it has brought into light the deep divisions related to the goals and nature of the negotiation process. Belgrade is seeking a compromise as a way to alleviate the plight of Kosovo Serbs. Its interlocutor wants the Serbian leadership’s consent on dissolution of Kosovo Serbs bodies of self-governance. It even has hopes that Belgrade would assist in the process. The European Union strives to make Serbia recognize Kosovo de-facto. It would enable it to launch the procedures of making Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo join the EU structures. 

Washington wishes the issue to be over and done with by making Kosovo a member of the United Nations. It wants to sidestep the possibility of Russia’s veto by holding sidelines talks between Brussels and Pristina. 

Belgrade is under strong pressure from the United States, the European Union and Kosovo Albanians. The decision to shy away from concluding an agreement may be construed as an attempt to gain time and achieve more favorable conditions. Belgrade was wise enough not to «burn the bridges» after eight rounds of talks and multiple sidelines contacts. Some Albanian language media outlets in Kosovo rushed to report that the Serbia’s decision is a blow against its aspiration to launch the talks on joining the European Union. Brussels itself is divided over the issue. The Serbia’s decision caused an immediate split among the European Union’s leadership ranks. Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, let know she was not going to arrange a new parley because the proposed agreement was the sum up of previous eight rounds of negotiations. 

At that, some diplomats, who wished to be anonymous, said they found it expedient to give Serbia more time and leave open the door for a new meeting between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart, Hashim Thaci. As a result, Brussels has failed to make out if the Serbia’s decision to pull out of talks was final or not. 

Bekim Зollaku, the Kosovo’s Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, is more optimistic. As to him, a new Dacic – Thaci meeting may take place in the coming days. He thinks that Baroness Ashton understands how complicated the negotiating process is, and she knows the agreement is at hand. So she will call the next round of talks soon. He has no doubt; it’ll take place till the end of this week. 

Now, let’s see what’s in store. 

The European Union and the United States are set to reach a final accord, otherwise their credibility as mediators will be questioned. Pressure is to ramp up on Belgrade to make it sign the agreement worked out before, any other option is excluded. It’s not an occasion that Baroness Ashton, supported by Washington, flatly refused the proposal of Prime Minister Dacic to divide Kosovo and offer the Preshev Valley to Albanians as a territorial compensation. At present the northern Kosovo funds allocation working group remains the only viable mechanism for consultations. All other contacts are frozen. 

According to Pristina newspaper Zeri, «the negotiating process is back to zero». Doris Pack, a German politician and member of the European Parliament, is known as someone well aware of all ins and outs of Kosovo’s internal politics. But this time she made only some hazy comments. According to her, the Serbia’s refusal to sign the agreement is not a tragedy. She thinks nothing drastic will happen in the coming days, the parties to the talks are facing a «new beginning». Belgrade will not have set the date of starting the European Union’s membership talks, and Pristina will not be able to get ahead on the way of joining the EU as well. Ismet Beqiri, the head of the parliamentary group of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), also thinks there is no reason to dramatize the Belgrade’s refusal to accept the Brussels accords. According to him, nothing terrible has happened. 

In the given circumstances Brussels will go to any length to restart the EU-sponsored talks under the previous conditions, at least till Mrs. Ashton represents the European Union. Hashim Thaci told the Belgrade daily BLIC that dialogue remained the only reasonable option for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina and that he was ready to accept the invitation for another meeting in Brussels to be issued by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton.

The European Union brokered talks between Belgrade and Pristina have ended up in failure after eight rounds. It brings up the issue of changing the framework. The process should be transferred to the United Nations. In any case, the success of a new round of talks will depend on concessions related to functioning of self-governance bodies in the north of Kosovo. Otherwise it will all end up with no results again, according to Yury Ushakov, the Russian President’s assistant…