Friday, September 13, 2019

Πάπας Φραγκίσκος σε Βούτσιτς: Δεν θα αναγνωρίσουμε το Κόσοβο

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Πάπας Φραγκίσκος σε Βούτσιτς: Δεν θα αναγνωρίσουμε το Κόσοβο
12 Σεπτεμβρίου 2019, 18:33 Tribune



Διαβάστε σχετικά για Αλεξάνταρ Βούτσιτς, Βαλκάνια, Βατικανό, Καθολική Εκκλησία, Κόσοβο, Κοσσυφοπέδιο, Πάπας Φραγκίσκος, Σερβία, Χριστιανισμός, Χριστιανοί,
Ο πρόεδρος της Σερβίας Αλεξάνταρ Βούτσιτς δήλωσε ικανοποιημένος από την συνάντηση που είχε στο Βατικανό με τον Πάπα Φραγκίσκο .



Όπως ανέφερε ο Βούτσιτς, στους Σέρβους δημοσιογράφους που τον ακολουθούν, ο Ποντίφικας του επανέλαβε την στάση του Βατικανού να μην προχωρήσει στην αναγνώριση της ανεξαρτησίας του Κοσόβου.

«Το Βατικανό παραμένει σταθερό στην θέση του» δήλωσε ο Βούτσιτς και ανέφερε ότι ευχαρίστησε τον πάπα Φραγκίσκο «για την στάση αρχής με την οποία αντιμετωπίζει την πράξη της μονομερούς ανακήρυξης της ανεξαρτησίας του Κοσόβου και που επιδεικνύει κατανόηση για τις σερβικές θέσεις».

Ο Αλεξάνταρ Βούτσιτς ανέφερε ότι ο Πάπας τον ενθάρρυνε να συνεχίσει τις προσπάθειες για την επίλυση όλων των διαφορών μεταξύ Σέρβων και Αλβανών μέσα από τον διάλογο και με ειρηνικό τρόπο.

Ο Βούτσιτς εκφράζοντας την προσωπική του άποψη δήλωσε ότι θα επιθυμούσε να υποδεχθεί τον πάπα Φραγκίσκο στην Σερβία συμπλήρωσε ωστόσο ότι για μία τέτοια επίσκεψη θα πρέπει προηγουμένως να δοθεί η έγκριση της Σερβικής Ορθόδοξης Εκκλησίας (SPC).

Ο πρόεδρος της Σερβίας ανέφερε επίσης ότι ευχαρίστησε τον Ποντίφικα «για την ειλικρινή υποστήριξη της Αγίας έδρας στις προσπάθειες της Σερβίας να καταστεί μέλος της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης».

Thursday, September 12, 2019

U.S. Plans to Jump Back Into the Balkans With New Envoy

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Two decades after brokering peace in the former Yugoslavia, Washington plans to try to restart talks between Serbia and Kosovo.

BY ROBBIE GRAMER | AUGUST 30, 2019, Foreign Policy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and Kosovar President Hashim Thaci during a summit on the Balkans in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 17, 2018.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and Kosovar President Hashim Thaci during a summit on the Balkans in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 17, 2018. VASSIL DONEV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The U.S. State Department is expected to announce a new special envoy on the Balkans in an effort to restart a stalled dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, aimed at ending a long-simmering dispute in Southeastern Europe.

Matthew Palmer, a career diplomat with experience in the Balkans, is likely to be tapped as the new special envoy, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. His expected appointment represents the latest push by the United States to address tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, two decades after an armed conflict that sparked a NATO intervention and eventually led to Kosovo breaking off and declaring itself independent from Serbia.


European Union-brokered talks between Serbia and Kosovo to normalize bilateral relations sputtered and stalled last November, after Kosovo slapped steep tariffs on Serbian goods and vowed to only remove them after Serbia recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty.

For some experts, Palmer’s anticipated appointment is a welcome development in a region often overlooked by top U.S. policymakers, at least since the intensive efforts made to end the deadly conflicts in the 1990s. Diplomats warn that Russia and China are expanding their influence in the Balkans, and resolving longstanding disputes in the region would help the countries move closer to the EU and Western institutions.

“The appointment of a new special envoy for the Balkans clearly indicates the United States is getting much more involved in this issue in a formal way,” said Daniel Vajdich, a foreign-policy expert who follows the region and worked on European issues as a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and on Republican presidential campaigns. “In my view this increases the likelihood we’re going to find some sort of solution to this issue before the end of the Trump administration.”

But successive efforts by top EU leaders, including foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini, to help ease tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have so far been unsuccessful. European leaders have been hesitant to discuss adding new members to the EU, a key economic and political incentive for Serbia and Kosovo to strike a final deal, leaving some experts skeptical that a dialogue will go anywhere.

Another current official who spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity also questioned whether tapping a new U.S. envoy would amount to positive shifts in policy or restart Serbia-Kosovo negotiations. Palmer will retain his current job as deputy assistant secretary of state overseeing the Balkans and Aegean region.

The United States played a leading role in brokering peace in the Balkans after the region erupted into war and ethnic-based violence over two decades ago. More recently, U.S. diplomats also played an important behind-the-scenes role in helping Greece and neighboring North Macedonia strike a historic deal that resolved a name dispute last year, paving the way for North Macedonia to join NATO.

Kosovo, with a nearly 90 percent ethnically Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. While over 100 countries, including the United States and many European nations, recognize Kosovo’s independence, Serbia does not. Nor does Russia, which maintains close ties with Belgrade.

Palmer’s expected appointment comes after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in New York earlier this month. Pompeo urged Vucic to restart talks with Kosovo and “engage with the spirit of compromise and flexibility necessary to secure an agreement and unlock both countries’ potential,” according to a State Department readout of the meeting.

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton indicated last year that the United States would support a deal between Serbia and Kosovo, including a potential deal that involves territorial exchange between the two countries. Critics argued any land-swap deals could stoke further instability. European countries, including Germany, maintain that such a deal could lead others in the region to demand a redrawing of their own borders, reopening territorial disputes that in part stoked the deadly conflicts in the 1990s.

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Sunday, September 8, 2019

Kiriakos Mitsotakis Warns of a Greek Veto on Albania’s EU Accession Talks

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Image result for Himara mitsotakis

Source: eKathimerini

Greece will not support EU accession talks with Albania until it shows “tangible” results in its treatment of the Greek ethnic minority, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated today, Kathimerini reported in a tweet.

The statement marks a change in the Greek foreign policy toward Albania’s opening of negotiations with the EU, after the center-right government of Mitsotakis replaced the socialist government of Alexis Tsipras two months ago.

Mitsotakis signaled a possible Greek veto on Albania’s next step toward EU integration while speaking at the Thessaloniki International Fair 2019.

When he was in opposition, the New Democracy Party leader had warned about a potential conditioning of Albania’s progress toward the EU with an improvement in the rule of law and minority rights.

Back in March, he reportedly said he wanted to send a “clear message to the Albanian government, […] that it is not possible to start the process of Albania’s EU accession when there is absolutely no respect for the rights of the Greek ethnic minority,” adding that “this is not an issue that concerns only Greece, it concerns Europe, it concerns the European acquis, it concerns the European rule of law.”

His comment came following reports that the Albanian government had allegedly prepared a draft-law that would allow for the expropriation of land from owners, to be used for strategic investments. This would have also affected the residents in the south of Albania especialy in Himara Region, where most of the Greek minority lives.