Kosovo to build consensus, continue dialogue with Serbia

But, Serbia's request to discuss the topic of the Serb-run municipalities' Association, and the Kosovo government's refusal to do so, had caused impasse in the process.

The Balkan Group's executive director for policy drafting, Naim Rashit, says Kosovo must courageously push forward the dialogue process and embark on it with all the necessary topics in order to reach the final agreement.

The key “is for Kosovo to venture forward the process, to be put into the process with all the topics needed to reach agreement. To build, empower, push ahead the comprehensive framework, insist on accelerating dialogue, despite the circumstances they are making and seeing if Serbia is really ready for agreement, because here is the main suspicion. Kosovo opens up ideas, build professional, strategic ideas for solutions, which are the modalities that Kosovo offers, Kosovo cannot refuse the topic of entry into dialogue -- neither that, to introduce boldly”, he says.

According to Rashi, Kosovo must build options at the table, bold and sufficient that make it a much better position in these negotiations.

Nothing bad is happening in negotiations, nothing will happen, the final agreement with its components will be discussed, we will come up until it is seen very soon, but we must not deviate from the moment when Serbia should be exposed to recognition of Kosovo, or full normalisation and work as hard as possible so that at the end of the year, or in spring Serbia will be exposed to this reality and whether we are walking towards a normalisation or Serbia is reluctant to make deals. And internal debate about association, the lack of political will, political courage, political consensus, is only crushing Kosovo”, he says.

But, Arton Demhasaj, executive director of the organisation “Arise”, estimates that the Government of Kosovo does not have to open the topic of association, as long as the Constitutional Court ruling exists for the same.

For as long as this constitution is in place and is in implementation and implementation, our government cannot sign another agreement on Association to contradict the Constitution, so the Government of Kosovo does not need once again to start and open this subject until we have a Constitutional Court ruling on this subject, which I think is the obligation of all our institutions to respect that decision”, he says.

Demhayan recalls the Constitutional Court's decision, under which the agreement for Association violates the Constitutional spirit.

In this regard, he says the statute for establishment of association should be established in principle with the Constitutional decision.

The government's <x0 response should be to start with the establishment of a statute for the Association of Serb majority communities, but which is in principle and the spirit with the decision of the Constitutional Court, and once this statute is established, it must still go to the Constitutional Court for a formal approval of whether or not that decision is consistent with the Constitutional Court's decision, it adds.

In recent months, the European Union has stepped up pressures related to continuing dialogue and reaching a final agreement.

EU Special Representative for Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak visited Kosovo a month ago and declared there can be no final agreement without the Association of the Serb Majorities.

The establishment of Association is envisioned with the Brussels Agreement, Kosovo-Serbia, in 2013.

Two years later the two countries have also signed an additional agreement on its establishment, but the Constitutional Court has found that the principles for it are not in line with the Kosovo Constitution.