Haradinaj: Dialogue in Brussels can continue without tax removal

He has reiterated the stance that Kosovo will not lift the 100 per cent tax on products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, unless the latter accept Kosovo as an independent state.

At a conference for media on Friday, Prime Minister Haradinaj has said the tax will continue to stay in force, despite the authorities in Serbia having conditioned the continuation of dialogue for normalising relations between the two countries with the withdrawal of this tax.

If that's their attitude, my attitude is also very clear. Until it is recognition (of Kosovo) at the table, we continue”, Haradinaj has declared.

He has added that the leadership in Kosovo has provided enough evidence in the past for, as he has said, rationality and that Kosovo has sat on the table without any conditions at all. But, according to him, this has not produced any results.

Prime Minister Haradinaj has stressed that if it were not for internal consolidation, the Kosovo side would be without arguments. As he has said, his purpose and mission are to consolidate Kosovo's internal arguments and empower Kosovo in the negotiating position.

I think that even the opposition should consider its role. So, even the LDK and Vetevendosje will empower Kosovo in the negotiating position with Serbia. There are two evils playing. One is inside we continue our internal political races for power, for other things, but it's also an external league. And for this foreign league we have to make a national Kosovo representative. That's where the LDK and Vetevendosje belong. It's not good to weaken its nationality, because it's time that matters. So, it's not the time luxury now to the limit of”, Haradinaj stressed.

On the other hand, the chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, at a news conference on Friday, has stressed that the Government of Kosovo has not claimed its responsibility for dialogue, and, according to him, there are already three concepts regarding dialogue.

“We consider that this responsibility has not been taken, at the moment when we have three concepts of dialogue: a concept or a platform of the president of the country, which has been translated into the opinion as the correction of the borders”; a concept of a draft government agreement, in which the prime minister pulls himself out of the role of dialogue, even though dialogue, according to the LDK, is the responsibility and issue of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo and is not of any group and team, but of Government. We also see that we have a concept or many concepts of the group that has defined the Parliament and that today, each head separately comes out of the proposal and an idea of what should be done in the dialogue process”, Mustafa said.

He has added that the LDK, in this process, will remain faithful to its document on the basis of development of dialogue, as well as remains committed to supporting the dialogue process so that this process can be completed in the benefit and interest of Kosovo.

While opposition parties, the LDK and the Vetevendosje Movement have made it clear that they will not be part of the state delegation in dialogue with Serbia on the other side, the possibility and manner of co-ordinating this delegation with Kosovo President Hashim Thaci remains unclear.

President Thaci has welcomed the January 8th meeting of the Kosovo State Delegation with the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Policy, Federica Moghrini,

Co-directors of the state delegation, Fatmir Limaj and Shpend Ahmeti, have requested co-ordination with President Thaci, as well as have asked the president and the Government of Kosovo for documentation that has been linked to talks with Serbia.

In Radio Europe's question of the possibilities for this co-ordination, as well as offering documentation for talks with Serbia, the Office of the President of Kosovo, so far, has given no answers.

Political issue acquaintance Artan Murati from the Kosovo Democratic Institute, speaking of Radio Free Europe, stresses that the country's top institutions should have a co-ordination with the state delegation. On the contrary, if the latter did not have access to basic documents, he would lose the sense of its existence.

We're always talking about documents, which are not public and there may be, for example, only the president. So it's on the way and the president needs to share all the documentation and all the necessary information with the negotiating team, recently formed. If this does not happen, which I consider to be a minimal step, then, what will be the role of this delegation as a whole or what would be expected of them, unless they have access to even the primary documentation that concerns the process of dialogue with Serbia”, Murati says.

However, according to Murati, the possibility of co-ordination between the state delegation for dialogue with Serbia and President Hashim Thaci remains unclear, because there is still no clarification of the competencies and the scope of this delegation.

In the Parliament Resolution, according to him, the scope and role of the negotiating team is mentioned, but, as he says, platforms are needed for dialogue and adoption of the dialogue bill.

As analyst Murati points out, the state delegation co-chairees' statements after meeting with European Union officials, that invitations from Brussels should come on behalf of the state delegation and then forward to the president, are examples of the lack of internal co-ordination in Kosovo.