Havenier: With urgency to have a proposal for Association

We cannot help but expect the Government of Kosovo to place several proposals on the table with an emergency to achieve that. The ambassador was quoted as saying at a meeting of journalists during the week.

Right now, I am extremely focused on the crisis that we have. I look forward to the time to return to strategic-level talks about normalisation proposals. I don't think it would be right for me to talk about the content of any proposal Miroslav Lajcak or others have put on the table. The whole point of sensitive diplomatic communication is to keep them sensitive until governments deal with complicated things. I believe Belgrade has made it clear that they too prioritize Association as part of the package for what is discussed in the dialogue process. The American government's attitude has not changed. We also believe that the Kosovo government's commitment to association must be fulfilled. )

He also talked about the target and the situation in the north.

I think I already put the recommendations down, so I'll give you the three points I said earlier. First, we believe that withdrawal from the Serb community from institutions is not part of the solution and has the potential to exaggerate tensions. We are hoping for this to be temporary and we expect them to return to institutions. Our advice to the government, as I said, is two-way in this present crisis. One, it is to have a full delay on the license plate issue to have more time for their change; not go ahead with punitive measures, which means fines from November 21st, I think it's fair. And the other is that they urgently start negotiations on Association, which has been identified by the community as well as by Belgrade, as a sensitive and important issue. We believe this is the obligation, signed in the Brussels Process, ratified in the Kosovo Assembly, there has been a Constitutional Court decision providing the parameters I mentioned, to have the Association that would address this concern and we believe there should be a proposal for association on the table to discuss. That is in line with the Constitution of Kosovo and in line with the Constitutional Court's decision. That way we get out of this. )