The Kosovo government has suspended EU-sponsored negotiations with Serbia intended to normalise bilateral relations. The trigger for this was Serbia’s attempts to have Haradinaj, a hero of Kosovo’s war of independence from Serbia, extradited from France on war crimes charges. Underlying this is a long-standing concern that Kosovo is the loser in a political dialogue that favours Serbia.
Prishtina’s repudiating the Brussels Agreement could augur a shift in traditional Western support for the Kosovo Albanians against Serbia.
A breakdown in the negotiation process would in effect suspend Kosovo’s integration with the EU and complicate Serbia’s own prospects.
An escalation in tensions between Serbia and Kosovo could eventually result in a clash.
