Bislimi in Brussels: Things cannot be the same after the events of September 24th

Bislimi ʹ, who is also Kosovo's chief negotiator for dialogue with Serbia, said during a speech at the Centre for European Policy in Brussels that “first, measures against Kosovo must be removed, while Serbia should not be allowed to commit aggression again against Kosovo”.

The EU imposed measures against Kosovo on 1 July, praising that it had not taken the steps required to reduce tensions in the north.

Kosovo police were attacked by an armed Serb group in the village of Banjska, in the municipality of Zvecan on 24 September, where Sergeant Africa Bulnjak was killed. Three Serb attackers were killed in the fighting that followed in the village monastery.

While Serbia has denied any involvement in this attack, Milan Radojic, former vice president of the Serbian List, the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo to have the backing of official Belgrade, has claimed. He was questioned and immediately released by Serbian authorities on October 4th.

During his speech Thursday, Bislim reiterated the positions of senior officials in Pristina that “clearly this attack was designed, enabled and supported by Belgrade. ”

The attack on Banjska took place about two weeks after Kurti and Vucinqi failed to reach agreement on normalising relations during the 14 September dialogue summit in Brussels.

Speaking of this meeting, Bislim reiterated that the Kosovo side had come up with a proposal and expected Serbia to do the same, in order to reach compromise in implementing the agreement.

The proposal of Prime Minister Kurti was turned down without reading. It was called unrealistic. Kosovo cannot be neutral with its status. We requested the other side's proposal to seek compromise. We were given a document that was prepared before the agreement and spoke only of Association. Here we concluded that there is no impartiality”, Bislim said.

He also spoke of what he called Kosovo's “progress” in connecting with the EU “in many areas”, as well as Kosovo's efforts to join the Council of Europe, but also in the EU.

He insisted that “must be consistently worked out to reach the legally binding agreement for normalising reports which should mean and mutual recognition. ”

Kosovo has compromised when it has accepted the agreement, which is neither final nor has bilateral recognition”, he added.

Bislimi said he expects the EU to handle Kosovo “according to the same standards with other countries”, because Kosovo is the only country to have applied for membership and has not yet received candidate status. / REL/