Dialogue among presidents, still without implementing agreements reached by Kosovo- Serbia

The dialogue that began in 2011 was led in both stages by Edita Tahiri, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Dialogue. The first phase of dialogue, dubbed technical, was transformed into political dialogue for normalising relations.

Edita Tahiri was chief negotiator of the dialogue until this year, when even the government led by Isa Mustafa collapsed with a no-confidence motion. Tahiri as minister in this government also left the post by delegateing the government's already-led works by Ramush Haradinaj, along with a report on work thus far.

Asked by the newspaper Life in Kosovo about the agreements reached and their implementation, Tahiri referred to the labour report he had submitted in July of this year.

According to her, in both phases of dialogue some 33 agreements have already been reached, there are no changes in the state of implementation of the agreement so far from the report it has made.

According to this report, some of the unmet agreements are blocked by Serbia, while others have been delayed in implementation by Kosovo.

In general, as non-compliance is considered the energy agreement, for diplomas, for cadastre, for civil protection, the removal of parallel structures and association for Serb majority municipalities.

The energy agreement, which has been negotiated for six years, has been blocked by the state of Serbia, and the reasons for this blockade have been outlined in Tahiri's report.

“We believe that behind these obstacles lies Serbia's unwillingness to implement the energy agreement, due to its political and economic interests”, the report says.

The deal on mutual recognition of diplomas is also unmet because of Serbia's unwillingness.

According to Edita Tahiri, this agreement would be especially for students coming from Presevo.

<x0->Motives for blockades seem to be political nature, oriented against the Presevo Valley Albanians, who especially need acceptance of their diplomas, as they study in Kosovo, in the absence of the University in the Albanian language in the Presevo Valley in Serbia, who seek to return and serve in the education sector or be employed in other public sectors in the Presheva Valley”, it found.

In 2011, Kosovo and Serbia had also reached agreements that cadastral documents that were dealt violently from Serbia during the 1998-1999 war against Kosovo returned to Kosovo.

According to the report, the delays had initially come from Kosovo's side of the Law's adoption of the Technical Agency on comparing and verifying cadastral documents that will return to Kosovo, while after adopting this law, Serbia is still refusing to return these documents.

Serbia is also considered blocking the implementation of the agreement reached in 2015 for closing all facilities, offices and warehouses that have been in use by the facility called Civil Protection in northern Kosovo municipalities and handing over institutions of the Republic of Kosovo.

According to the report, Serbia has sabotaged implementation of this agreement in various ways.

Kosovo has paid salaries for 378 people for 18 months, but they cannot work because the premises we rented are bombed and the tenant has been threatened. In addition, objects of the former “civil protection” that were to be handed over to the Government of Kosovo, in accordance with the Brussels agreement, surrender has not yet been made”, the report said.

On the other hand, Kosovo is the reason for failing to implement the agreement on the association of Serbian municipalities.

That, according to Tahiri, is being done to condition Serbia to remove parallel structures installed within Kosovo.

The most disturbing “Fenomen is Serbia's dualism under way, which means that on the one hand they implement agreements and on the other hand continue to support its parallel structures in Kosovo, including the illegal municipal structures in the north and in some other parts of Kosovo”, Tahiri has said.