The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is participating today in the Peace Forum in Paris, where he will have a separate meeting with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Belgian President, Alexander De Croo.
This year’s Forum’s topic is “Paris Pact for People and Planet” and Macron will open it at 9:30 am.
During the two days of the Forum, Vučić will also meet with the Prime Ministers of Albania and North Macedonia, Edi Rama and Dmitri Kovačevski respectively, as well as with the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović.
Analysts believe that EU politicians need a quick victory and that they will try to use the Peace Forum in Paris today and tomorrow to urge the Western Balkan region to accept the EU’s proposals that are on the table.
“The EU needs some kind of political success by the end of the year. I do not believe this will happen, but that the drama surrounding Kosovo will continue for a long time,” says Miroslav Stojanović, a foreign policy analyst.
One of the topics discussed at the Forum will be Brussels’ proposal for the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities. Slobodan Zečević from the Institute for European Studies says that meeting participants will be cautioned if not openly conditioned to accept the proposals.
“The condition would be that those parties who do not adhere to the proposal, that is, those who are not constructive in accepting it, will bear certain sanctions. There will certainly be threats. Also, the current sanctions imposed on Kosovo are symbolic”, Zečević adds.
Stojanović says that the West is in a hurry hence the acceleration of diplomatic efforts to finish things as soon as possible, because we are entering a critical year in which the elections for European institutions and the presidential elections in the USA will take place. Stojanović also points out that the situation for both the EU and the USA is becoming increasingly dramatic because they are entering a period of major electoral upheavals.
He also goes on to say that Stojanović says that there will certainly be talks about the so-called Ohrid Agreement on the Forum’s sidelines, which, he reminds, was worded to resemble the agreement between the two Germanys from 1973.
“This whole battle is being waged for Kosovo to ultimately become an UN member which is a mission impossible, even if Serbia agrees to it, which I seriously doubt it,” Stojanović adds.
Stojanović believes that there will be a big ‘shuffle’ in the European Parliament because the right wing is getting stronger in a large number of countries and the political terrain will obviously change because of that, plus there is also the highly uncertain US presidential elections.
“Add to this the current international situation, which is extremely difficult. The war in the Middle East is more serious than the conflict between Russia and Ukraine because the conflict in the Middle East can quickly spill into other countries and get out of control,” concludes Stojanović.
(Blic, 10.11.2023)
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