Kosovo “harron” dialog with Serbia

The power of the Kosovo leadership to create new institutions, according to analysts has enabled Serbia to gain ground in the diplomatic arena, while the Serb side has sent signals to the international community that Kosovo is immature to deal with important issues, such as dialogue.

Emrush Ujkan, professor of European Law at the University of Pristina, tells Radio Free Europe that bringing leadership to Kosovo leaves much to be desired at this moment when there is great dynamism, either from international mechanisms or from Serbia, about how it should be moved further.

With such an approach Serbia is gaining ground in the diplomatic arena, as it turns out to be more prepared, it is going out to create its own positions, as long as our institutions that are in the way to give room to the 11 June elections are still not founded and they don't know what they will be up to when they get their new mandate, if they get it because the current situation is not very promising, Wojan points out.

On the other hand, political affairs analyst Imer Mushkolaj tells Radio Free Europe that the Serbian state is exploiting Kosovo's institutional vacuum.

Serbia's state officials are apparently exploiting Kosovo's institutional vacuum. I think that they are doing this without purpose, in order to propose their ideas, and on the other hand to signal the international community in the first place, that Kosovo is not willing to deal with these issues, to express, respectively, the immatureness of Kosovo institutions in the face of important issues, such as dialogue and as the future of relations between Kosovo and Serbia”, Muskolaj points out.

According to him, the Kosovo side has knowingly left this space to the Serbian state, and they are exploiting it.

A day earlier, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has said that only Serbia in negotiations with the European Union has chapter 35, which concerns Kosovo, and that this should not be forgotten and therefore thinks Serbia needs internal dialogue on Kosovo.

Until, Serbia's Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, has suggested that the resolution of the Serbian-Albanian conflict be made by historic compromise.

In view of all of this, analyst Ujani says Kosovo is losing a lot, as according to him, it is enabling Serbia to propose ideas, which will then have priority in the political agenda.

“On one side speaks of historic compromise, as he calls it, on the other side says Dacic says partitioning Kosovo is an opportunity. What are we talking about? We're not able to have an alternative or have a clear position in this direction and that doesn't seem to be because we don't have institutions at the moment, and our loss in this direction is a big”, Ucan points out.

Pristina and Belgrade have held their last high-level meeting in July of this year.

This meeting was held at the political level of the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia, which is a new dimension of dialogue, which is largely held at the level of prime ministers.

At the recent meetings of the two presidents, Kosovo's Hashim Thaci and Serbia's Aleksandar Vuciq had agreed to open a new phase of negotiations leading to normalisation and reconciliation.

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia on technical issues began in March 2011, for the first time after Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008.

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia had opened new chapters for both countries in the process of European integration.

Serbia took advantage of opening membership negotiations with the EU, while Kosovo signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union.

So far Pristina and Belgrade have reached a series of agreements in the EU-launched dialogue, including the first agreement on normalisation of relations in April 2013, which envision the formation of the Association of Serb-run municipalities.