Lack of political unity for dialogue, weakening Kosovo position

Germany and France have confirmed that the meeting in Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia has been postponed. In the joint statement, the parties are said to have a virtual discussion Sunday, while face-to-face they will meet in Brussels on 16 July. However, this meeting is not seen as the possibility of reaching a final agreement.

Germany and France have confirmed yesterday that the meeting in Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia has been postponed. In the joint statement, the parties are said to have a virtual discussion Sunday, while face-to-face they will meet in Brussels on 16 July. However, this meeting is not seen as the possibility of reaching a final agreement.

The political party's lack of unity, President Hashim Thaci's non-participation after the indictment proposal by the Special Court, is being praised by civil society as the weakness of the Kosovo side against the Serb side.

The executive director of the CaviKos platform, Donika Emine, says that as long as there is great attention from the EU and US to resolve the dialogue issue, Kosovo has domestic political problems.

The frequent change of governments, including this year where two governments have been changed, Emini claims it is the indication that Kosovo is not ready to return to the table, because according to her, they do not know what it wants from this process.

So far we've known what we don't want and so massively here is also mentioned sharing territories as an agreement that would be bad for Kosovo, but we haven't come up with any other plan what if not the association, not the exchange of territories and no status quo. The second is the problem the government has with domestic legitimacy, it is well known that if an agreement within the Kosovo dialogue- Serbia was signed by Mr. Thaci I believe a part of PDK or even all The PDK would vote in Parliament, now with its exit from the game I don't know if The PDK will have the same political will to support such an agreement. As such I don't believe that Mr. Hoti can pass an agreement on Parliament, because with PDK and LVV out of numbers there will be no simple majority in parliament”, she says.

It argues that the issue of the unity of political parties has had to be resolved before the return to the negotiating table in Brussels occurs.

And Kosovo's representation in Brussels on 16 July, according to her, is problematic, since the country's President Hashim Thaci will not participate after the indictment proposal by the Special Court.

Political innovations where a new government is formed, leaving the winning election party out of government, according to Emin, made the government Hoti not have the legitimacy to represent Kosovo in this dialogue.

The fact that the president has been the only person involved in dialogue since the beginning and has a memory of the process, the fact that he is not in the process greatly hurts Kosovo, because we have Mr. Hoti, who's new in the process. It was Mr. Isa Mustafa who has been involved in a certain period of time, but Mr. Hoti has never been and the fact that he is going for the first time is facing Vuciqi, who is very politically strong at the moment. There is a cry between the US and the EU ahead and there is no political support inside Kosovo, it means an extremely extreme weakness for Kosovo's position in dialogue”, she said.

The unity of political parties for the process of dialogue finds Life Krasniqi necessary by KDI. She says dialogue is irreverent, and for that there must be support for all political parties in the country.

At the same time, it argues that Kosovo should seek clarification of the EU's role and a co-ordination with the US in the process.

“To seek a clarification of the EU's role, a clarification of the role of EU member states, but certainly to have even a co-ordination with the US in this process, as we cannot think of having such a big closing agreement between Kosovo and Serbia unless there is US support for this process”, she says.

Reaching a final agreement between the two Brussels mediating countries sees political analyst Albinot Maloku, who says of Kosova Press, that the EU to show that there is interest in Kosovo must first make visa liberalisation.

“I don't see any concrete steps in terms of reports of countries between Kosovo and Serbia, in the sense of a revival of something that would have a conclusion or a final agreement, as stated several times by President Thaci, either by President Thaci or by other political garrisons, using and the expression final act, namely the final phase of the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. I don't see that there will be any concrete in this direction, what I expect is for the European Union to really show privacy to Kosovo by making visa liberalisation. This had to be the step that Kosovo citizens had believed in the EU steps in terms of a possible agreement between Kosovo and Serbia”, he says.

Meetings between Kosovo and Serbia have given support through special representative Richard Green and the United States, while preceded the meeting of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti in France and the virtual Friday summit between Hoti and Vuqiqi.

We remember that the June 28th meeting, scheduled to be held in Washington between Kosovo and Serbia, has failed as a result of the indictment proposal to Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and PDK chairman Kadri Wessel.