Government: Prime Minister heads dialogue, co-ordinated with Vjosa Osman

He has stressed that the Constitutional Court's act of 2019 has made clear who is in charge of this process.

Of course, the prime minister will do so by consulting and co-ordinating with the president and building national and state consensus on dialogue. The prime minister has already stated several times that he will seek consensus and debate until depletion with the opposition on capital issues for the country, and dialogue with Serbia is one of the main issues in which consensus will be required”, Kryeziu said.

According to the Constitutional Court's decision in 2019, the Government of Kosovo is the bearer of the dialogue process with Serbia.

But, connoisseurs of political developments Beftman Pasharizi and Dusan Janjic say neither Kurti nor Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, despite positions expressed in favour of dialogue between the two countries, both are not willing to approach the resumption of this process.

Following the election of Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, as well as completing the country's high institutions with the new composition, following the February 14th elections, Western Kosovo partners are insisting on restarting its dialogue with Serbia in Brussels.

Osman and Kurti in Co-ordination for Foreign Policy
On Wednesday, April 7th, Kosovo President Osmani has hosted the meeting of Prime Minister Kurti and some of the government dictatorship leaders, where they discussed the need for establishing joint co-ordination mechanisms in the field of foreign policy.

“President Osmani and Prime Minister Kurti agreed to regular institutional co-ordination between key institutions of the Republic of Kosovo in implementing common goals related to strengthening international subjectivity and national security”, the Osman Office report said.

Meanwhile, in the wish that European Union for Foreign Policy High Representative Josep Borrell has written on 5 April, Vjosa Osmani, in the case of her election of president, has said that “with the new institutions in the country, Kosovo can focus firmly on the necessary reforms and on the EU-led dialogue”.

On April 3rd, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has congratulated Albin Kurti on his election as prime minister and has mentioned to him the important and serious tasks awaiting the new government, such as rule of law, fighting crime and corruption, improving the economic situation and “in particular, dialogue for normalisation with Serbia”.

President Osmani has declared that dialogue is the way Kosovo has ahead, but as she has said, “ai must be fair and equal”.

“Peace will only be achieved when we see the penance from Serbia, when it apologizes, and when justice is established for those who have suffered from their crimes”, Osmani has said.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said four principles must be set for dialogue with Serbia. As he noted, the reality of independent Kosovo must be acknowledged, the truth must be accepted from Serbia for the crimes he committed in Kosovo, both sides should be equal in question and since the dialogue and the final agreement benefits citizens.

Serbian President Vuciq earlier stressed that he is willing to respond to Brussels' invitation to continue dialogue. However, in February of this year, Vucic stressed that the United States of America together with the European Union can be expected to pressure Serbia to recognise Kosovo in the coming period.

Kurti Manufacturra

Pukarazi, professor at the Journalism Department at the University of Pristina, considers Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti maneuvering to avoid dialogue with Serbia.

Parisi expresses the opinion that Prime Minister Kurti intends to drag the dialogue back until after the local elections in Kosovo, expected to be held in autumn of this year, in order to confirm his political power and the outcome of the February 14th elections.

Pacarizi points out that Kurti has launched an intelligent battle in order to unlock dialogue, turning it from political themes to more technical issues of reports between Kosovo and Serbia. However, as he says, the international community seems to have read this Kurt maneuver and if accounts that have no time to lose further will not take into account maneuvers.

“Mr. Kurti has made some progress, if we can call it that, by softening his terms for dialogue from asking for forgiveness for crimes committed in Kosovo and other cases, but these are maneuvers, with which Mr. Kurt can buy some time. But he cannot earn as long as he estimates he needs and which is at least until the end of local elections”, Pacarizi stressed.

But, for Dusan Janjiqi from the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade, Brussels' insistence on continuing dialogue is disturbing. According to him, the administration in Brussels does not understand and respect the reality created and requires that dialogue be restored to the old format, where everything the parties agree on is not valid if the final agreement is not reached. As Janjic says, the key issue in the dispute between the two sides is the status and accession of Kosovo.

America's “means (recognition) bilateral. Kurt means in his own way, so reality from 2008 onward. This is the key issue. The mediator is the one who must provide the next principle, referred to by Kurti - equality. The mediator is here for equality. The very fact that Kosovo and Serbia talk about two things, especially after Washington's agreement, where Vuciqi and (former Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah) Hoti, in various letters have signed on the basis of their posts. So we have the functions on paper. So they have acknowledged the reality of the existence of the Government of Kosovo, whether of the Republic of Kosovo or of Belgrade. But the European Union must continue with this”, Janjic said.

Professor Parisi estimates that Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti and Serbia's president, Vuciq, are among the leaders with the greatest popular support in their respective countries, and they have no space to avoid continuing dialogue.

As for the Kosovo side, according to him, there is expected to be a synchronization of actions between the president and prime minister regarding dialogue, which, according to him, has not happened before. On the basis of a Constitutional Court decision, the government is the one who carries the burden of dialogue with Serbia. But, Pacarizi considers that seeing the presence of foreign embassies in Kosovo, their hope of advancing the dialogue is President Osmani, because Prime Minister Kurti has sometimes declared that dialogue is only among six priorities and not the top priority. At this point, according to him, the state of presidency-government interaction can be complicated.

“Initially, there will be no friction, as there will be a kind of synchronization between President Osmani and Prime Minister Kurti. However, friction will appear inevitable at moments when the dialogue will enter its final stages and at moments when concrete documents will be presented to the parties, since Mr. Kurti at this stage irrespective of the great popular support he has he is not willing to enter into heavy deals that could harm”, Pajarizi stressed.

Vuciq “is unable to accept reality”

Meanwhile, Dusan Janjic, suggests that for now, Serbian President Vuciq is not able to do anything to accept the reality of Kosovo's prime minister, Kurti, who is the independence of Kosovo. According to him, Russia's interventions in the entire Balkan region are huge, and the political context is such that for Vuciqi, any acceptance of reality would imply political suicide.

As Janjic says, the political elite in Serbia has learned from former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's fall, “never to be told no negotiations and never leave the talks first”.

Of course, they say they are ready for dialogue in the sense that they will respond to any invitation. But will dialogue develop? They will develop it as in the period of (former EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Federica) Moghrin, for 20 months a meeting. This is not what Kosovo, Serbia and the EU need. In Serbia, the only policy against which Vuciqi will not endanger his head and position is the status quo policy. So, as for Serbia, there are no conditions for successful dialogue. It would be best for the EU to get a little help and Kosovo also allows time to stabilise, because it also has local elections and a new methodology to try a reconciliation with Americans to overcome this” crisis, Janjiq stressed.

Both of these connoisseurs of political developments assess that both sides -- Kosovo and Serbia -- despite the fact that the dynamics of the dialogue process -- and the mediator -- in this case the European Union will constantly maneuver to drag through dialogue and evental issues that will be put on place.

The European Union's special representative in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, on March 25th, warned that the first meeting between Kosovo's new prime minister, Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, is expected to happen within weeks. /rel/