"Vucic has been told he can drag out Kosovo solution"

"Vucic has been told he can drag out Kosovo solution"

Daily Blic said it learned from diplomatic sources that "pressure from western countries to solve the open issue between Serbia and Kosovo is slowly waning."

The Brussels-based source also told Blic that Germany and France have realized that the final solution to the Kosovo issue is not even on the horizon, "so the decision has been made not to insist on solving that question by the end of 2018 or in early 2019."

That message has reached top Serbian officials, and, according to the newspaper, President Aleksandar Vucic has been told in several meetings that he can "drag Kosovo our for a couple more years."

The reason for this is reportedly that Pristina does not want to make any kind of compromise, while Serbia and its president are determined to reach a solution through compromise - "however, the good will of one side is not enough."

At the same time, as stated in the article, the problem also turns out to be that Hashim Thaci does not have the support of his constituency as much as Vucic does in central Serbia, and therefore does not dare to come up with any concrete solution, except occasionally referring to delimitation ("border correction") - but persistently refusing to comply with the obligation to form the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO).

The last round of dialogue in Brussels ended before it started because Vucic refused to meet with Thaci, Blic noted, adding that in the meantime some of the most powerful countries have begun to change their attitude towards Pristina, expecting the United States to exert "final pressure" on representatives of the Kosovo government - which, however, has not happened.

The newspaper also notes that the Trump administration unexpectedly "relaxed" its stance towards Belgrade - so in just a few weeks things went from being "done deal, Kosovo is an independent state" to "Washington will not interfere in the process, will support everything the two interested parties agree on."

Along with the clear position of Russia, which says it will support any solution that the Serbian side agrees to, Blic also recalled the words of EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn from the beginning of September who said the whole process should be completed by next year - and this would be the first time that the deadline is no longer the end of this or the beginning of 2019.

Another Belgrade daily, Vecernje Novosti, quotes Secretary General of the European Movement in Serbia Suzana Grubjesic, who said that it was no surprise that there was no longer any time limit, "because it is obvious that some things have changed since the United States got more seriously interested in the dialogue."