Kosovo-Serbia: Disagreement for association of Serb majority municipalities, stalled dialogue

Pristina says that in the Kosovo dialogue, Serbia has already been presented the deadlines, when there may be a comprehensive final agreement, but this has been rejected by the Serb side, which says the official Pristina must implement the agreements reached so far before the deadlines are discussed. Kosovo's chief negotiator in Kosovo- Serbia Besnik Bislimi, after returning from Brussels where the Kosovar and Serbian sides met with EU mediators, but not among them, told local media that “dialog Kosovo-Serbia with a comprehensive agreement will be concluded within a set time of”, which according to him, “matches the mandate of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti<3>.

The time benefits are actually presented, but have to do with some coincidence that even Mr. Kurti, and Mr. Even Mr. Biden's. Borrell coincides with”, Deputy Prime Minister Bislim said, not citing a specific date.

For us it's important that the agreement is initially good, not to harm citizens, then the timetable is of importance, but not as primary as quality of the agreement. We will not sign any agreements that we will know for sure is at the expense of citizens”, says Besnik Bislimi. He said that from the Serbian side, however, there is reluctance for a final agreement.

There is a hesitation on the other side. We are saying that the main focus should be on the overall, legally binding agreement, and the Serb side is saying to deal with the other past agreements, then we go to the comprehensive” agreement, Bislim stressed.

Following these statements by Kosovo's chief negotiator, Belgrade reacted formally, saying there are no deadlines for the completion of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. The director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, which is also the Serbian director in the dialogue, Petar Petkov, said that official Pristina must first implement the agreements reached so far, before talking about deadlines.

“In the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, unlike the claims of Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, there are no timelines of Kurti, and the probability of reaching the agreement is not measured over time, but in Kosovo's readiness to respect the agreements reached so far and to enable the formation of the Serbian Major Commission Association”, Petkov said in a statement issued by the Kosovo office in Serbia's government. According to Petar Petkovic, the “end of dialogue cannot be visible when Pristina did not apply even what had been agreed on nine years ago, at the beginning of the” dialogue.

The fact that Pristina would like to have results of dialogue has nothing to do with reality or dialogue, while Pristina is wasting time on us and the EU mediators. The formation of the Association of Serb majority municipalities is at the heart of dialogue and for the continuation of normalisation of relations can only be productive after Pristina fails to avoid its obligations and take concrete steps towards implementing what its representatives signed in Brussels”, says Petkov.

One of the main reasons why the Kosovo and Serbian parties failed to sit at a table during the past week in Brussels was precisely the issue of the Association of Serb majority municipalities. The Serbian side insisted that this issue be part of the talks, but the Kosovo side refused. The founding of the Serb majority municipalities' Association for official Pristina is unmet for the fact that it does not allow Kosovo's Constitution.

Formation of association is part of an agreement that was reached in 2013, within the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. Two years after 2015, the parties had also reached an agreement on the principles of the establishment of this association. But, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo found that the principles for it are not in line with the Constitution of Kosovo, though it says they can be harmonised with a legal act of the Government of Kosovo. And it is precisely the issue of association, and there is no progress in the Kosovo dialogue in Serbia that is unable to make an upcoming political summit between Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, despite calls from the international factor that both sides must sit at the table. Germany's Ambassador to Kosovo Jorn Rohde said that “when wanting to reach an agreement, then must sit at the negotiating table”.

It's good to be optimistic, and I'm optimistic. In order to reach a deal, he must negotiate with the other side. You can't decide what the other side decides. You set your demands, so do they. So see where a common basis can be found. That's the principle whatever you call it, dialogue or negotiation. You need to talk to each other. It is not a good idea to refuse to talk about certain issues, because this creates taboos and taboos does not lead to results of”, Ambassador Jorn Rohde said.

However, Serbia's pressure on official Pristina to establish the Association is also being done through the Republika Srpska List, which has 10 deputies in the Kosovo Assembly and is not participating in the assembly's leadership meetings to make it impossible to call regular sessions. Following the end of local elections, where the Serb majority municipalities won the list, the chairman of this political subject, Goran Rakic, said the fight of this party is focused on forming the Association of Serb-run municipalities. If there is no Association, there will be no Kosovo institutions”, Goran Rakic has declared. /DW