Kosovo Opposition and EU Undermine Serbia-Kosovo Washington Deal

One day after former prime minister Albin Kurti voiced deep doubts about the economic normalisation deal with Serbia, signed in Washington under US President Donald Trump's auspices on September 4, the EU has also undermined its significance.

Kosovo politicians remain divided on the separate agreements that the two countries signed with the US - which do not specify when they should enter into force, or whether they require ratification by their national parliaments, although domestic laws in both countries say they should be.

After the EU initially adopted a restrained attitude to the US-brokered agreements, on Wednesday, Ana Pisonero, EU Spokesperson for International Partnerships, Neighborhoods and Enlargement, told Radio Free Europe that the EU was already realising key items in the Washington deal.

"The EU has provided technical assistance to the entire Peace Highway", she said, referencing the planned US-funded motorway connecting Nis in Serbia and Kosovo's capital, Pristina. It had "already approved investments for the first sections of the highway in Serbia and Kosovo", she added.

On September 15, the US International Development Finance Corporation, DFC, and the US Export-Import Bank, EXIM, signed Letters of Intent with Serbia and Kosovo on building the new motorway.

Kosovo opposition parties have meanwhile dubbed the US-brokered agreements non-implementable.

In an interview for Kosovo TV channel KTV on Tuesday, Albin Kurti, former prime minister and now the leader of the main opposition Vetevendosje party, called the Washington deal a "messy agreement", saying it had far too many things written on only "a page-and-a-half".

Kurti said parts of the agreement could not be implemented at all, citing as one example...

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