Serbian and Kosovo presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci reached an agreement which Germany rejected and French President Emmanuel Macron is now in a scouting mission to determine the possibility of renewing the Serbia-Kosovo normalisation dialogue, the long-time Balkans expert James Hooper told Voice of America.

“Something incredible happened – the Serb and Kosovo leaders have achieved a concept regarding demarcation, which would include a relatively small exchange of territory – and that was unacceptable to the Europeans,” Hoopers said.

He said he finds it unbelievable that the agreement was rejected without offering an alternative solution.

“Then the German Chancellor told Macron to see if there's a way to replace the rejected agreement with some sort of a process which would lead to a new agreement,” he noted.

The American expert added that Germany had de facto coordinated the situation with the Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj who “blocked the agreement in Kosovo playing the nationalist card,” while “Chancellor Merkel blocked the agreement in the EU, at the recent Western Balkan Summit in Berlin.”

“She held a pretty gruelling meeting with Aleksandar Vucic and I think that was the end of that agreement which Thaci and Vucic invested so much effort in. I am convinced that the agreement, which would significantly speed up Serbia's path to EU, was reached, just as I am convinced that Kosovo would get the UN's recognition,” Hooper concluded.