The Washington Agreement: A Supplementary document to the EU effort in Kosovo?

Abstract

This paper analyses the Washington Agreement (WA) in the context of European Union (EU) efforts to facilitate the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. The starting point is based on the idea that EU-led negotiations seek consensus between leadership in Belgrade and Pristina, as opposed to unilateral or imposed solutions. The central question is as follows: is the WA a supplementary document to the Brussels process? While certain points of the agreement are a mere repetition of previous agreements signed by the two parties, the agreement commits Kosovo to the mini-Schengen and brings a novelty into the dynamics of the Belgrade-Pristina relationship, such as in the case of the joint management of Gazivode/Ujmani lake. With a new Kosovar government, the mini-Schengen point, together with the point of Kosovo and Serbia’s pledge to open/move embassies to Jerusalem, remains the most contested part of the Agreement. Finally, the two sides have reaffirmed their commitment to Western values and agree to become less dependent on Russia’s energy and China’s technology supplies.

Open Balkan: Objectives and Justifications

“…Vucic, thanks to the Trump administration, persuaded Kosovo's previous leadership to sign the Washington Agreement. Besides repeating many already signed agreements from Brussels and adding unusual points that served Trump's campaign, the Agreement also envisaged that Kosovo would join Open Balkan and share Gazivode/Ujmani Lake (Semenov, 2021). However, Albin Kurti, the new leader of Kosovo Albanians, believes that the Agreement is damaging to Kosovo's interest and that there are no negotiations without Serbia's full apology, recognition, and reparations (Crowcroft, 2021).…”