Kosovo, Serbia on mutual charges of failure to implement agreements

Mainly, accusations and mutual convictions have prevailed as to why specific agreements have not been implemented in all or not been implemented at all. Pristina accuses Serbia of not fulfilling almost any agreement reached in Brussels.

Parliamentary Commission for Foreign Policy Chairman Vjosa Osmani says that, given the Government report, 90 per cent of the agreements reached have not been implemented on Serbia's part.

“A conclusion from all of the things I read, whether we express in volume or percentage not to implement these agreements on the part of Serbia, they can reach over 90 percent, so there is no agreement that it does not violate at least partially”, Osmani has declared.

Kosovo's “as far as recent international reports are concerned only with not implementing the agreement on the Association of Serb municipalities, meanwhile, Kosovo as far as we are informed by the preliminary governments even from this current one has observed its obligations stemming from all other <x1) agreements, Osmani has said.

On the other hand, even Belgrade blames why Pristina is not fulfilling its part of the commitments. In fact, the charges lie not only in implementing Brussels' agreements but also in other agreements, part of which are both Kosovo and Serbia, as is the case with CEFTA, a regional free trade agreement.

Although CEFTA is not part of the Brussels accords, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has declared that it will not continue with dialogue, until Pristina abolishs the measures of imposing a 10 per cent tax on products imported from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia is ready for dialogue, but before that someone has to act responsibly. He must fulfill his part of his commitments. Belgrade has fulfilled all as Pristina has fulfilled its only obligation -- the one for forming the Association of Serbian municipalities -- has not fulfilled” -- had declared Vuciq, following the recent meeting with Kosovo President Hashim Thaci in Brussels.

While Belgrade and Pristina throw the ball at each other for failing to implement the agreements in Brussels, former Kosovo chief negotiator in these talks Edita Tahiri, who has been involved in dialogue on reaching almost all these agreements, says that in fact it is untrue that Serbia has not implemented any agreement, but the list of agreements it does not implement is longer than Kosovo's:

“What I disagree with when I hear some statements saying that Serbia has not implemented the agreements at all stood. To implement the agreements and restore Kosovo's sovereignty to Kosovo's north, the three sides are actually committed both Kosovo and Serbia's EU, so it cannot be said that Serbia has not implemented at all, but has the longest list of unmet” agreements, Edita Tahiri told Radio Free Europe.

The results of implementing these agreements, according to Edita Tahiri, are placed on the ground, in particular in extending Kosovo's sovereignty to the north. This, according to her, is evidenced by the deployment of customs, police, as well as judicial bodies in the north, which prior to reaching agreements have operated in parallel with Kosovo's legal and constitutional system.

For implementing these agreements, according to Tahiri, Serbia has also contributed. However, she says there are still seven agreements Serbia is not implementing, while Kosovo, underlines it, has shown more responsibility in this process, in addition to the agreement for the Association of Serb-run municipalities, which it has not yet implemented. The fact that Serbia accuses Kosovo of not implementing any agreement, Tahiri calls it a lie.

Now I tell you that Serbia has the habit of telling lies, this is not the innovation I'm saying, they're known for this job. Kosovo has been consistently responsible and has implemented most of the agreements, which are not valid for Serbia, which even today when we are talking there are seven agreements that have not implemented and the most important is the agreement on energy, then the agreement on recognition of diplomas has not yet returned cadastral documents, even though Kosovo has implemented its share. We have a deadlock on opening the Ibër Bridge, even though this is the European Union's failure that has to do this job. As far as Kosovo is concerned, the deadlocks are on the issue of association”, Tahiri points out.

Meanwhile, Tahiri also says launching the topic for changes or correction of borders has been presented as a new obstacle.

This government may have seemed comfortable not to deal with dialogue, but the prime minister burst it under the table “bomba” of the border issue. Thus, many prime ministers who have denied responsibility for the” dialogue have erred, Tahiri stressed.

Failure to implement agreements has been one of the problems since the beginning of the dialogue, says Life Krasniqi from the Kosovo Democratic Institute. This problem, she underlines, made this dialogue with many questions in particular if the initial deadlines for implementation by the parties in the dialogue.

“Now when we talk about how many parties have managed to fulfil their obligations certainly that the Serb side is what is consistently blocking and the party which has not taken over the obligations agreed on under dialogue. On the other hand, Kosovo's problem has been in the Association Agreement of Serbian municipalities, what Serbia always cites”, Krasniqi points out.

Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia on normalising relations started in 2011, initially as dialogue on technical issues, then on the political level. The European Union has urged the two countries to reach a legally binding agreement at the end of the talks, which, in addition, would pave the way for EU integration.