Normalize Youth Involvement:
Towards an Inclusive Belgrade-Prishtina Dialogue

Melanie Jaindl, MA; Anja Jokić, MA; Hekuran Muja, BA

The normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia is widely depicted as being at a constant standstill. While this may be true of the EU-mediated Belgrade-Prishtina Dialogue, cooperation and reconciliation efforts on the ground, driven by civil society and young people, have been very active. This paper calls on politicians and the media to close the gap between these bottom-up and top-down processes, particularly by including youth voices, and to give a more considerate (media) framing of peacebuilding in the region.

1. Open the Dialogue to civic consultation and participation. This guarantees local ownership of the process, ensuring that the Dialogue meets the needs of the citizens, and that the citizens in turn accept the results. Any agreement must be in line with EU expectations to support future accession, but it should foremost cater to the people on the ground, not to Brussels. In this regard, it is essential to close the gap between the high-level political talks and the existing civil society efforts that have been made over the years, including through the involvement of young people. Comanagement mechanisms serve as an established and sustainable tool to promote inclusion and train young people to take on responsibilities in decision-making.
2. Apply a positive framing to potential outcomes of the Dialogue and to the Dialogue itself. To win the engagement and approval of local societies, political elites and the media must translate the direct positive impact that future agreements will have on everyday lives. Intensive political campaigning and tangible results are necessary to showcase the Dialogue as a diplomatic victory, and not – as is currently the case – as defeat. Social media channels offer a particularly effective platform, as these are the most popular sources of information among young people. Furthermore, media and international actors should give more attention to the progress made by civil society on the ground, which is overshadowed by the standstill of the formal Dialogue.
3. Explore new possibilities of peacebuilding. The challenges and tools for peacebuilding are not the same as they were 13 years ago when the Dialogue started. Aside from the official negotiations and transitional justice, socio-economic challenges, gender-based violence and the environmental crisis need common and intersectional answers; joint work on these issues can help in the rapprochement of both societies. Young people from both societies have more in common than not and recent developments have demonstrated the determination of young people to participate in democracy. In line with the UN’s Youth, Peace and Security Agenda, EU mediators and respective political representatives must therefore promote youth involvement as only an intergenerational and intersectional approach can guarantee the long-term success of this process.