EU mediator welcomes promise by Kosovo and Serbia to finally implement the 2023 declaration, intended to help find the remaining missing persons from the 1998-99 war, calling it “an important step towards bringing closure to families”.

The chief negotiators of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkovic, in a meeting mediated by the EU special envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, agreed in Brussels on Tuesday to implement the 2023 Declaration on Missing Persons.

“Very happy that we successfully concluded the negotiations on operationalising the 2023 Declaration on Missing Persons. An important step towards finally bringing closure to families. We will soon host the first meeting of the Joint Commission,” Lajcak wrote on X on Wednesday.

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi, after the meeting, said: “Now we can move forward and the first meeting of this joint commission will be held next month,” adding that Serbia had promised not to obstruct the commission.

Petkovic, head of Serbia’s office for Kosovo, said: “The last obstacle to implementation of the Declaration on Missing Persons has been removed”, adding: “The joint commission has been agreed upon that will provide support to the working group, which is chaired, as before, by the International Committee of the Red Cross.”

The EU on Tuesday explained that a “Joint Commission chaired by the EU Facilitator will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Declaration on Missing Persons.

“It will monitor the Parties’ cooperation: on identification of burial sites and follow-up excavations; on access to accurate and reliable information including all relevant domestic and international documentation,use of satellite data; Light and Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and advanced technology for detecting mass graves; and respect for the rights of the families of the Missing Persons.”

The agreement had “reaffirmed that the issue of missing persons is a humanitarian concern”, the statement read, adding: “Today’s progress is an important step towards the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and the implementation of the 2023 Agreement on the Road to Normalization.”

In April 2023, Kosovo and Serbia took the first steps to implement a verbally agreed normalisation deal, in Ohrid, North Macedonia, establishing a Joint Monitoring Committee to oversee the declaration on missing persons. On May 2, 2023, Kosovo PM Albin Kurti and Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, both committed to the Declaration.

But in April 2024, the head of the Kosovo government’s Missing Persons Commission, Andin Hoti, whose father is also missing, claimed he had not received a response to a letter he sent to Serbian authorities in June 2023 about opening up the archives on Yugoslav Army units accused of involvement in war crimes in Kosovo .

He also claimed he had received no response to letters sent to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressing concern about non-implementation of the deal.

On Wednesday, Lajcak listed the various steps needed to implement the Ohrid deal, in accordance with the May 2, 2023, commitment.

They include: de-escalation in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo; accountability for the September 24, 2023 attack against Kosovo police by Serb gunmen in Banjska village led by Milan Radoicic, currently in Serbia; re-integration of Kosovo Serbs that quit Kosovo institutions in November 2022; the establishment of an Association of Serb-majority Municipalities by Kosovo; recognition of Kosovo’s documents and symbols by Serbia.

The same conditions were mentioned by the EU General Affairs Council on Tuesday, which also condemned the recent explosion at Ibar-Lepenc canal, which risked leaving Kosovo without water and electricity. The chapter on Kosovo also said that “the EU will gradually lift measures [against Kosovo] in line with other steps by Kosovo to de-escalate tensions in the north”.

In June 2023, the EU announced a package of “reversible” measures against Kosovo, citing its failure to restore calm in the Serb-majority north.