REL: Next Hoti-Vucciq meeting questioned

Although it had been warned that on September 28th, the next summit between Pristina and Belgrade would be held in Brussels, where Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, holding this meeting has been questioned.

Diplomatic sources in Brussels told Free Europe Radio that it is still not certain whether this meeting will be held because they have no confirmation from the parties.

The reason for the eventual development of the meeting may be Kosovo's refusal to negotiate the formation of the Association of Serb majority municipalities, the issue which was said to be discussed under the theme “arignities for non-communal communities”.

In the EU, they have stated that to discuss this topic, even on issues related to financial and property claims, Prime Minister Hoti and President Vuciq had agreed during their meeting held two weeks ago.

The delegations of both countries at the level of experts discussed the property and financial topics last week, and the EU warned that in the coming days the issue of “aritions for non-communal communities” will be discussed.

Serbia's delegation, as the parties had confirmed in the dialogue, had insisted that the founding of the Association of Serb-run municipalities would also be discussed at the latest expert meeting, but the Kosovo side had refused such a thing.

After that meeting, Serbia's delegation chief in the dialogue, under the expert level, Marko Djuric, had said Serbia would consider participating in the next meetings and condition it with Pristina's willingness to establish the Association of municipalities with the majority Serbs. Djuric had indicated that Serbia expects the EU and member states to pressure on official Pristina on the issue.

In the EU, they still do not have a clear answer about whether or not the previous meeting will take place on September 28th. But some diplomatic sources claim that, if the Kosovo delegation continues to object to the discussion of “aritions for non-communities”, then it will be difficult to organise the meeting between Hoti and Vuciqi.

The “can't be talked about just topics that one side wants, and not be discussed with the topics the other side presents”, a diplomatic source in Brussels has said.

In Kosovo last week, debate arose among political leaders as to whether to discuss the issue of association is discussed in the dialogue mediated by Brussels. On the other hand, in the EU state that Kosovo, after signing agreements on establishing association, must now come up with proposals on how to implement it.

But, asked whether they would agree to do so under the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo in 2015, where the Court found that the Association Agreement on 23 points was contrary to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, chief of Serbia Marko Djuric, had declared that the so-called “Constitutional Court should have no role in this” and that involvement of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, had deemed it as an attempt to prevent the implementation of this part of the agreement.

In the EU, they say they continue to work on efforts to organise even the high-level meeting between Kosovo and Serbia next week.