Kosovo’s chief negotiator in the EU-facilitated dialogue with Serbia, Besnik Bislimi, publicly accused Serbian official Petar Petković of breaching a mutual agreement within just 30 minutes of their trilateral meeting in Brussels held on Monday.
According to Bislimi, Petković promised not to use his media appearance to misrepresent the discussion or introduce issues that were not part of the agenda. However, Bislimi claims that “it took less than 30 minutes for him to violate both promises.”
The First Trilateral Round with Sorensen
The Monday meeting marked the first trilateral session under EU facilitator Peter Sorensen. From Belgrade, the acting director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petković, told the media afterwards that the Serbian delegation had:
Insisted on the formation of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities (ASM)
Presented a plan to deescalate tensions in North Kosovo
Raised issues including: alleged “terror against Serbs,” arrests, closure of Serbian institutions, the functioning of MTS, and visits to detained Serbs.
Meanwhile, Besnik Bislimi emphasized that the main focus of the meeting was the implementation of the Basic Agreement. He acknowledged that no full consensus was reached but said that open issues included: missing persons, energy, integrated border management, and the situation in Preševo, Bujanovac, and Medveđa, claiming that Serbia is obstructing progress and spreading disinformation.
The next trilateral session is expected in early July, with a working group meeting on missing persons scheduled for June 26 in Geneva, as confirmed by both parties.
Bislimi: Petković’s Claims Manipulative, Agenda Misrepresented
In a follow-up statement issued two days after the meeting, Bislimi strongly criticized Petković, claiming the Serbian official had manipulated facts and violated agreed terms.
Bislimi explained that Sorensen had proposed three agenda items for the trilateral: Basic principles of EU facilitation; Next steps for implementing the normalization agreement; “Miscellaneous” items.
While Kosovo was reportedly ready to engage on all proposed points, Bislimi claimed Serbia rejected the agenda altogether and tried to impose a new order of discussion, which, according to him, blocked at least eight key issues from being addressed.
He added that talks continued in bilateral formats – EU-Serbia and EU-Kosovo – after the agenda was derailed.
Accusations of Media Manipulation and Silent Editing
Bislimi also criticized a press release issued by Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, highlighting a screenshot of an earlier version of the statement, which he said was later silently edited after an alleged intervention by the EU facilitator.
According to him, the original version failed to specify that the claims were made during bilateral meetings, not during the trilateral session.
“The remaining content also follows Serbia’s standard propaganda narrative aimed at inciting hatred, obstructing normalization, and discouraging Kosovo Serbs from integrating,” Bislimi alleged.
He noted that despite content changes, the publication date on the Serbian government website remained the same, and no notification was given to the media about the edits.
“Easy to Verify with EU”
Bislimi insisted that Petković’s “falsehoods” are easily verifiable with the EU Special Representative, reiterating that the trilateral meeting focused solely on EU-proposed principles and steps for agreement implementation, and no consensus was reached on expanding the agenda.
He concluded that Petković blended bilateral and trilateral topics in his press appearance and introduced off-agenda issues, which, according to Bislimi, was a deliberate move:
“Petković failed to distinguish between what was discussed in bilateral and trilateral meetings. His manipulative statement was echoed in several Serbian media outlets including B92, Telegraf, Kurir, Euronews Serbia, and RTV. The deception was intentional, as the same claim is repeated later in the article.”
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