The U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said the normalization agreements reached between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels and Ohrid are legally binding and their full implementation is essential to resolving the region’s longest-standing frozen conflict.
In an interview with Montenegro’s national news agency MINA, Escobar described the agreements as “legal in every way,” pushing back against claims that the lack of formal signatures undermines their legal validity.
“I hear people say they didn’t sign, and therefore it’s not legal in every way,” Escobar said. “Vice President [of the European Commission] Josep Borrell said it was legal and binding, and both leaders affirmed that it is legal and binding.”
The Brussels Agreement, reached in February 2023, and its implementation roadmap agreed in Ohrid in March 2023, aim to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which have been strained since Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
Escobar credited Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić for showing “a lot of political courage” in engaging with the process. “A normalization agreement, on European terms, that creates a peaceful, stable and predictable relationship between two hostile neighbors is a major achievement,” he said.
He added that the U.S. believes full implementation of the agreements will help “heal the most divisive frozen conflict in the Balkans since 1999.”
The EU has also repeatedly stated that the agreements are legally binding and required for Serbia and Kosovo’s progress on their respective European integration paths. Both Belgrade and Pristina agreed to the content and sequencing of the implementation, though tensions persist over key issues including the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities in Kosovo and mutual recognition in practice.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll get there,” Escobar said. “I believe that both leaders can show the political courage necessary to take the right steps.”