Unity Team for Talks with Serbia unnecessary

Establishing a Unity Team in Kosovo for the next phase of dialogue with Serbia, by political analysts, is considered an impossible mission. Such a team, they say, could extend talks even longer.

It was Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who after his recent meetings in Brussels with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, had demanded from all political instances in the country the creation of a wide representative base.

Thaci had declared that any final solution would be in line with the will of Kosovo citizens.

But, politicologist Ramush Tahiri, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says a comprehensive team can provide a political consensus, but not an expertise and a pronounced professionalism.

I'm not a supporter of the entire team. This team can ensure transparency, but not any quality in the talks and any effectiveness. Rather, it will prolongate and extend dialogue or talks”.

I think the Parliament is the place where the general consensus should be harmonised and reached, while the government as executive and as the most professional structure can lead the talks in the respective sectors, each ministry with each ministry”, Tahiri points out.

Meanwhile, before a comprehensive team is established, according to political affairs analyst Artan Mujaziri, there should be a professional analysis about the overall performance of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

He tells Radio Free Europe that errors and concessions should be identified in this analysis as well as the level of success of the agreements reached.

However, according to him, the creation of a Unity Team is difficult to implement.

The “ide to the creation of a group of unity has little basis in reality, as the huge gap among political parties in Kosovo makes it impossible to do so. There is no kind of will, especially from the opposition to be participating in a group of unity”.

“All hesitations have to do with the current performance, since the opposition considers itself bypassed by this process, and therefore they don't want that now, when the process of dialogue has entered perhaps a final phase, to get the failures that could be billed at”, Mujahir says.

During the past mandate of institutions, ideas had been circulated that in the event of opposition involvement, it would take over the leadership of dialogue.

But such an idea, according to Ramush Tahiri, is not shot. The opposition in Kosovo, he follows, does not disfellowshipped and has its place, but that talks of this kind such as dialogue with Serbia cannot lead because of its responsibilities and mandates, compared to Government.

I don't see any reason for Kosovo to return to the initial phase and seek Unity Teams. The unity teams we've had in any form are not the best choices, and they have no responsibility, either legal or otherwise. Since interstate agreements are very concrete responsibilities and have to do with the highest level of state organisation”, Tahiri points out.

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia has started in March 2011, for the first time after Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008. This dialogue has opened new chapters for both countries in the process of European integration.

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.

Until, at the last meeting in Brussels, between President Thaci and Serbian President Vuciq, reconciliation has been reached for final steps in implementing the Justice Agreement, reached within the dialogue the European Union brokers.