The trap of constitutional changes blocks Kosovo- Serbia

Lajcak during his stay in Pristina, on October 15th, has declared that agreements from 2013 and 2015 concerning association exist, as well as the assessment of the Constitutional Court, which has said that association should be formed in compliance with the court's decision.

The first step we need to discuss is the statute, and that's what we expect. Association is part of the comprehensive agreement. The agreement will begin to be implemented after signing”, Lajcak has said in Pristina.

But, in Belgrade the same day, Lajcak had declared that Kosovo authorities have told him they would fulfil obligations from the agreements in Brussels, including forming association. As he has said, the EU's position is that Serbia and Kosovo should negotiate “for very important processes, and that it is logical for the Constitution to be changed”.

For that, nobody told me it was impossible. The constitution is not a Bible”, Lajcak said.

Dialogue in impasse, EU stopi

Bekim Baliqi, professor of Political Sciences at the University of Pristina, tells Radio Free Europe that statements with Lajcak's qualms are counterproductive to the dialogue itself. According to him, Lajcuk's statement in Belgrade is a kind of ultimatum for Pristina, but it did not to Belgrade.

Professor Baliqi suggests that if Kosovo agreed to enter, as he calls it, the political games for constitutional changes, then Ahtisaari's document, which is at the foundation of the Kosovo Constitution, as well as on whose basis the country's independence was declared in 2008, will be exceeded. That, according to him, would lead to a review of the system's functioning framework in Kosovo.

Serbia, by late, has not insisted on association at all. So since 2015, the issue of association has been almost taboo. The reason Serbia is raising this topic is to increase public public opinion pressure in Kosovo, in order to fail the whole process and then blame the Kosovo side, as if they are not ready for compromise and that they have no one to deal with”, Bali stressed.

Even analyst Maliqi expresses the opinion that Serbia's current conditioning for Association is only efforts to curb and block dialogue, given the domestic situation in Kosovo. According to him, Serbia is interested in the dialogue failing, but concoring it as Kosovo's fault.

“Therefore, this is a blockade, which Serbia creates at the moment. Second, in the past two weeks, in parallel with this political blockade of Serbia, we have seen an extremely active media and propagandistic campaign of deconformats with sources from Serbia and from Russian-related media to strain the situation within Kosovo and deepen polarisation within Kosovo. I read this as Serbia's first attempt to block dialogue on the political level, establishing conditions that are unacceptable and second, to make Kosovo the negotiating position as difficult as it is, with the goal that dialogue will be delayed or delayed and that it will be done for Kosovo”, Maliqi stressed.

Analyst Maliqi has added that the EU's eventual pressure on Kosovo will be fruitless, and as a single result could be destabilising the political situation and going to new parliamentary elections. That, according to him, would result in the creation of a new Kosovo government, which would have even less readiness to co-operate for dialogue.

But, however, as Maliqi says, the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue under way in Brussels will remain at the point at which it is now, until after the presidential elections in the United States, which are held on 3 November. Until then, both sides, Kosovo and Serbia will try to strengthen their positions.

Regarding Lajcak's statements, it has so far reacted only to Kosovo's Parliament Speaker Vjosa Osmani, who has said that what Lajcak has stated in Belgrade, “obsolutely is not true” and that she has told him otherwise, so that the Constitutional Court's decision must be respected for establishing the association “.

To Lajcak's statements in Belgrade, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspore in the Government of Kosovo, Melza Haradinaj-stubla, has reacted, saying that changing the Constitution could restore the idea of exchange of territories. So far, the country's prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, has made no comment regarding Lajcak's statements.

The formation of the Serb majority municipalities Association is envisioned with the 2013 Brussels Agreement reached in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

In 2015 the two countries, under the European Union's mediation, have also reached an additional agreement on the principles of the establishment of this association. But, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has found that in 23 provisions of the agreement, principles are not in harmony with the Constitution of Kosovo, even though it has said they could be harmonised with a legal act of the Government of Kosovo.

Kosovo authorities have declared that the association will be established in line with the Kosovo Constitutional Court's decision, but after reaching a comprehensive agreement with mutual recognition with Serbia.

Belgrade authorities have insisted that the Association of Serb majority municipalities be formed immediately and that this issue be a topic for negotiation within the current dialogue in Brussels, which Pristina authorities have rejected.

What is Association?

The association of Serb majority municipalities is a community that collects around itself ten municipalities in Kosovo, where most of the population are Serbs, who are North Mitrovica, Klokot, Partesh, Ranilug, Gracanica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, Novoberda, Leposaviq and Shrpca.

Belgrade wants through this body to increase its influence in Kosovo even more. However, Kosovo authorities have repeated several times that they will not accept an association with executive competencies.

According to Pristina, such a community with executive competence would resemble Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina and would violate the country's independence and sovereignty.