Hill: Serbia prepared for negotiations in Brussels, but not others

During an interview with the media in Belgrade, N1, Hill said that in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, media brokered by the EU, two things are being tried to do -- addressing urgent issues, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti's decision, for Serbian plates and documents, respectively, and addressing issues, as he said, important.

The Serbian side did well. They knew what they were going to talk about, what was important. Unfortunately, some of the others were not prepared to talk about specifics”, Hill said.

I think that to resolve these issues you should eventually talk about specifics. But you also need to put these specifics in a broader context, and the wider context is the question of the Serb community and how this community will live in the future. For me it is key that the Serb community feels at home in Kosovo and secure. So there are some attempts to talk about and I believe these efforts will continue”, the American ambassador to Belgrade added.

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He said that at the meeting between Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, he went prepared “to negotiate and really did housework”.

This meeting, under EU mediation, ended without any agreement.

Therefore, I think they [Serbia] really tried to be flexible and find solutions”, Hill said.

The new round of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia was called on to reduce tensions between the two states, following the establishment of barricades by local Serbs in northern Kosovo in late July and early August.

In the afternoon of August 1st, local Serbs in northern Kosovo removed the barricades, and the Kosovo government agreed to postpone implementing decisions by September 1st.

Ambassador Hill said the results of Brussels' meeting were disappointing, but added that the talks are continuing, and in this context he also cited US envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, and the EU's visit to dialogue Miroslav Lajcak in Pristina.

“Talks in Pristina will be very important”, he said.

Asked whether Serbs in Kosovo would live better if the Association of Serb majority municipalities were created, for which Kosovo and Serbia have signed two agreements in Brussels, Hill answered:

I am a huge believer that it should be worked for a future for the Serb community, for any mechanism. There are several models across Europe for this”.

Hill added that association should be better defined, as according to him, “des are very important in this matter”.

“People need to know what their life will look like”, he stressed.

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European Models That Can Be Used for Association
Escobar had also mentioned in the past that in European states there are models in respect to the language and cultural heritage of minorities, which can be taken as a guide to creating association. However, he had said that the association should be on the basis of the Kosovo Constitution and not create state within the state”.

Serbia demands that the association have executive competencies, meanwhile, Kosovo opposes the idea of a single-ethnic association.

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Escobar and Lajcak behind Pristina will remain in Belgrade as well. The visit of Western officials to Kosovo and Serbia is seen as an effort to convince the parties to find solutions before September 1st, when implementing the decisions of the Government of Kosovo begins.

The first decision concerns reregistering cars that have license plates issued by Serbia, at those RKS (New Kosovo Republic). Kosovo city acronym plates like KM, PZ and similar that are issued by Serbia are considered illegal by official Pristina.

Meanwhile, the second decision has to do with issuing a document for entry and exits for all citizens of Serbia entering Kosovo. This document, Serbia releases it to Kosovo citizens for 11 years and ends from the agreement on freedom of movement the parties have reached in Brussels in 2011.

Serbia has said it wants a compromise solution on these two issues, meanwhile Kurti has said decisions are based on law, but also on agreements reached earlier under Brussels' dialogue.

Kosovo's prime minister has expressed readiness to give up issuing documents for entry and exit, if Serbia does the same.

After meetings in Brussels, Serbia has claimed to have offered solutions to the issue of Serbian license plates and documents, but according to Vuciqi, they have been rejected by Prime Minister Kurti.

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Vuciq has said he has demanded that cars with license plates released by Serbia with acronations of Kosovo cities, instead of registering in the Kosovo Republic of Kosovo ʹ to register in the KS acronym that represents neutral status on Kosovo's citizenship.

Meanwhile, in terms of the documents for entry and exits, Belgrade has called for them not to be issued to Serbs living in Kosovo, separately in the north.

Radio Free Europe has been addressed to the Government of Kosovo with questions about whether to consider compromise solutions Belgrade has spoken about and whether it is ready for any compromise, but government officials have said that regarding these issues, Kurti is pre-emptive for addressing the public on 24 August.