On September 7, Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), in cooperation with Aspen Institute Germany, held an event on the topic “Evaluating Kosovo’s Position in the Dialogue with Serbia: What is at Stake?”, in Berlin, Germany. This discussion has been held under the “Chatham House” rules with a panel including with Arbër Fetahu, Research Fellow, Group for Legal and Political Studies, GLPS, and Dr. Frédéric Jörgens, Deputy Head of Division 209 Western Balkans, German Federal Foreign Office. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner, Executive Director, Aspen Institute Germany. At the beginning of the discussion, Arber Fetahu, researcher from GLPS, presented a policy paper named “Evaluating Kosovo’s position in the Dialogue with Serbia”. The discussion than continued with the other panelist, Dr. Frédéric Jörgens, Deputy Head of Division 209 Western Balkans, in the German Federal Foreign Office. The event was moderated by Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner, Executive Director, from the Aspen Institute Germany. The findings and discussion presented from GLPS paved the way for a very interesting discussion among the present participants. Other participants were from relevant NGOs in Berlin, participants from the Embassy of Kosovo, Albania and Serbia in Berlin and representatives from Bundestag. The final remarks from the discussion were on the conclusion that a normalization of the relations between Kosovo and Serbia are indeed important for the political and economic stability of the region of the Western Balkans, and that the two parties should utilize the mediation of European Union (EU) and United States of America (USA) in the dialogue. This discussion addressed the following questions: What are the next steps? What risks may arise from the current tensions? What is the role of civil society in Kosovo? How can relations between Kosovo and Serbia be normalized? What is the role of the media? What role do Germany and the EU play?

Venue: Aspen Institute Deutschland, Friedrichstraße 60 | 10117 Berlin, Germany