Ahtisaari with EU officials

Ahtisaari with EU officials

Durlo said that Ahtisaari will speak of the negotiation process at the meeting and on the latest developments in the process of searching for a solution for the future status of Kosovo. The UN special envoy will also present a draft solution for the final status which he is still working on, Durlo said.

He added that Ahtisaari is also going to a regular meeting of EU officials because Germany as the EU chair country singled out Kosovo as one of its priorities. Germany took over the rotating EU presidency on January 1 and will remain in that office until June 30.

Negotiations after elections?

The US will recommend an additional two weeks of negotiations following UN Marti Ahtisaari’s proposals for the Kosovo status solution, International Crisis Group member Alexander Anderson told B92 yesterday.

He added that the motive behind this proposal by the US and most other countries in the Contact Group was the desire to appease the Russian stance that the negotiations had not been deep enough so far.

Anderson said that the idea was to organize classical negotiations, adding that Western countries probably assume they will be a formality. “I do not think anyone expects too much of these negotiations, or that they will bring about some breakthrough decisions or changes in the positions of both sides. It would be fair to say that both sides will probably stick to earlier positions in the negotiation process. To my best knowledge, Priština has apposed the idea of additional negotiations after Ahtisaari presents his proposal“, Anderson said.

The US have not confirmed officially that they wanted additional negotiations, but State Department official Nicholas Burns said that Washington’s hopes were that a solution for Kosovo could be found a month or two after the elections in Serbia.

The closed meeting of the Contact Group for Kosovo during which Ahtisaari will present his negotiations has been scheduled for January 26th in Vienna.

Čeku accepts consultations, rejects negotiations

Kosovo PM Čeku expects consultations, not negotiations, after Ahtisaari presents proposal

Kosovo Government Prime Minister Agim Čeku said Priština expected to have a definite stand at the meeting of the team for negotiations. „There is no doubt that there will be consultations with Ahtisaari over his package, but I will defend the positions that the team for negotiations adopts“, Čeku said.

Čeku met with UNMIK chief Joachim Ruecker today and discussed the transfer of authority from the UN administration to Kosovo institutions and preparations for opening the UNMIK office in Brussels.