Serbia promised riches for abandoning Kosovo

US envoy tells CNN affiliate that prosperity in EU awaits if Serbia “moves away from the narrative”

The sooner Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s independence, the faster they can both reunite in the prosperous embrace of the EU, in which the former Yugoslavia will power the continent’s entire economy, US envoy for the Balkans Gabriel Escobar said Friday in an interview with a local CNN affiliate.

“I think we have to move away from the narrative that Kosovo is Serbia, and move toward the narrative that Kosovo and Serbia are Europe,” Escobar told N1 TV at the US embassy in Belgrade.

“You have a common future, and that future is moving rapidly away from the problems of the 1990s and quickly to the opportunities of the 21st century,” he added.

In this future, the remnants of Yugoslavia will become “driver of growth for Europe, for the entire continent,” Escobar explained, a center for renewable energy production, information technology, shipping and transportation. 

“So the reality is that eventually, you’re all going to be linked anyway,” starting through some regional economic arrangements such as the “Open Balkans” initiative, and “eventually through the European Union. The quicker we can resolve some of these issues, the quicker we can get to this future of opportunity,” the US envoy concluded.

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