Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, on the one year anniversary of the 2023 Ohrid deal, demanded equal treatment of Kosovo and Serbia on the implementation plan of the agreement reached under European Union mediation.

The agreement includes the establishment of an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities in Kosovo that would protect Serbs’ interests, but also insists that Serbia “not object to Kosovo’s membership in any international organisation”.

“I request that there be equal treatment of the parties, that the sequential implementation plan takes into account that both Kosovo and Serbia implement their obligations in a parallel, immediate manner, and not that one party has to all the benefits at the beginning, and then think about Kosovo at the very end because this creates a situation where Serbia benefits while Kosovo is told to wait a little more, give even more,” Osmani stated.

Osmani accused Serbia of violating the deal “many times”

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell expressed his dissatisfaction with what happened in the year since the Ohrid deal was reached.

According to Borrell, it is regrettable that, despite extensive efforts by the EU and the broader international community, there has been very limited progress thus far by both Kosovo and Serbia in implementing the obligations they accepted under the agreement.

“The EU recalled repeatedly that the Agreement is binding in its entirety under international law. Therefore, any lack of implementation does not only endanger the Parties’ European integration, it also damages their reputation as credible and reliable partners”, reads Borrell’s statement , issued on the evening of Sunday, March 17th. 

He emphasised that it is high time for both parties to break the current vicious cycle of crises and tensions, and move into a new  European era, adding that “the Agreement offers a better future for the citizens of Kosovo and Serbia and the entire region.

Over the past year, the Ohrid deal and its implementation has been overshadowed by numerous events, such as the tensions in May 2023 in the northern municipalities of Kosovo, measures against Kosovo taken by Serbia and the Banjska attack in September 2023.

Under an 11-point agreement reached in February 2023, Serbia and its former southern province committed to develop normal, good-neighbourly relations on the basis of equal rights, a state of affairs that would represent a major improvement on their current relationship.

In March, in the lakeside town of Ohrid in North Macedonia, an implementation annex was agreed to, setting out seven steps to reaching the goal of the February deal.

But beyond endorsing a declaration on missing persons and establishing a joint committee to monitor implementation, little else has been done since the Ohrid deal, raising fresh questions about the effectiveness of years of EU mediation between Belgrade and Prishtina.