The negotiating team is preparing new platform for dialogue

So said Radio Free Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Limaj, who along with Social Democrat Party Chairman Shpend Ahmeti, are co-directors of the Kosovo delegation in the process.

Limaj said this platform will be the main pillar on which the entire negotiation process between Kosovo and Serbia will be based. He has not made clear whether through this platform the red lines of what Serbia cannot be discussed will become clear.

The “Ide is to date a platform that reflects the unique stance of the Republic of Kosovo. As a document which will be a guide to the Kosovo state delegation, Kosovo institutions and thus Kosovo will have a message, a voice in future talks with Serbia”, Limaj says.

The negotiating team, which was established in half of December last year by the Kosovo Assembly, is awaiting co-ordination and ideas for the continuation of this process, even by President Hashim Thaci.

The formation of this team has come as a result of the Kosovo Government's intention to empower its role in the talks with Serbia, what is seen by political analysts as efforts to dim the leading role of Kosovo President Hashim Thaci in the dialogue with Serbia. That goal, it is believed, has been greatly stepped up behind the idea of “border correction”, which President Thaci supports but not also Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and the Government of Kosovo.

“We have immediately established a commission within the state delegation which is preparing draft platforms and for that we have received many documents from the Government, we are also waiting for some documents from the presidency, various ideas”, Limaj tells Free Europe Radon.

Life Krasniqi from the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) tells Radio Free Europe that the platform in addition to ensuring that it is a politically inclusive team and that there should be political consensus, there must be clear red lines against Serbia in this process.

“Must be the red lines defined on this platform, where Kosovo does not violate its territorial integrity, its sovereignty and its unitary functioning of the state of Kosovo. The epilogue should be determined that Kosovo should be recognised by the Serbian side formally, that is, mutual recognition and membership of the Kosovo side in the United Nations”, says Life Krasniqi.

By this platform, according to her, it should be seen replacing Resolution 1244 with another resolution, since the same cannot be in force after reaching the final agreement and must have mechanisms for implementation of this agreement.

Kosovo's negotiating team has implemented a consultancy meeting with European Union officials on 8 January. After the meeting, Chief of Foreign Policy and Security Federica Moghrini, who mediates dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, has said she has demanded that Kosovo lift the 100 per cent tax imposed in November.

The two co-directors of the Kosovo State Delegation, Limaj and Ahmeti, said after the meeting they have clarified the role of this delegation and readiness to discuss all the open topics between Kosovo and Serbia, which would lead to a comprehensive agreement, under the primary condition, mutual recognition.

However, the continuation of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, in the new phase of this process, according to EU officials, remains unclear as Kosovo keeps the customs duty on products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in force.