The topic of association can be returned to the chat table

The issue of establishing association, which was considered an essential part of the Brussels Agreement, has remained in the margins of border change ideas as a controversial solution to reaching a peace agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

The upcoming meeting of the institutional leaders of Kosovo and Serbia is expected to be held on 1 July in Paris, whose host are French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Kosovo Government officials say they still do not have a draft agenda on what will be discussed in Paris.

The Kosovo government's spokeswoman, Donjet Gashi, says the Kosovo side does not rule out the possibility that, under general topics, the issue of establishing the Association of Serb-run municipalities can be found for discussion on the part of Serbia.

But we can't confirm as long as we don't know what the other side or the host of this meeting can present. We, we should never forget that on the basis of this action we have the Constitution and the laws of Kosovo. The same thing will happen on this plains as the Association. Kosovo will either implement it or agree to implement it and has already taken international commitment to the issue, but always by respecting the country's constitution and laws”, Gashi said.

Meanwhile, connoisseurs of political, Albanian and Serbian developments estimate that the issue of establishing the Association of Serb-dominated municipalities is not expected to be a topic of discussion either at the upcoming meeting of the institutional leaders of Kosovo and Serbia, expected to be held on 1 July in Paris.

However, they have different opinions if this issue is again initiated.

Politologist Ramush Tahiri, speaking of Radio Free Europe, stresses that the meeting of Kosovo and Serbia delegations in Paris on 1 July will be with more complete teams. But, as he says, talks will be made on principled and general topics, without touching many concrete topics and that the issue of establishing association, is not expected to be a topic of discussion in Paris. For more, according to him, new elements exist in the approach of Kosovo's political and institutional leaders, regarding the issue of Association.

Kosovo is now experiencing a reassession of everything it has done so far in talks with Serbia. We have Kosovo President Hashim Thaci's statement, which says that until he is president, there will be no association of Serb majority municipalities neither with competence nor without executive competence. He says this because we have had certain promises from the European Union and none of these promises have been realized. The Kosovo government has also been declared, through the prime minister, that the association, if established, will be done on the basis of the Constitutional Court's opinion”, Tahiri says.

Serbia's knowledge of political developments, Randjel Nojrik, tells Radio Free Europe, that official Belgrade has already spent all variants and confessions concerning resolving the Kosovo issue and can now turn the foundation of association into a focus. But, according to him, this issue is not expected to have the epilogue Belgrade wants.

“ (President of Serbia Aleksandar) Vucin has admitted there is no solution. There is nothing left but that Vuciq again will start the issue of the Serb majority municipality community. But, the Serb municipal community, according to the model Vuciq requires, is already late. The Serb municipal community will never be formed. But, if eventually reached to form, it will be no different than under the law and the Constitution of Kosovo, because this is the only possible solution”, Nokjic said.

However, the formation of the Association of Serb majority municipalities stems from the Kosovo and Serbia Agreement under dialogue in Brussels in 2013. Meanwhile in August 2015, Kosovo and Serbia have signed the Agreement on the formation of this association, also specifying the way they are formed. Kosovo's Constitutional Court, in December 2015, had estimated that this agreement, at 23 points, is not in harmony with the country's Constitution.