Bislimi after meeting in Brussels: The foundation of the association without signing the agreement

Kosovo's chief negotiator in dialogue with Serbia, Besnik Bislimi, has said Thursday's meetings in Brussels have ended without a trilateral meeting, because there has been no need for anything like this.

He has only met with EU envoy for dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, but not with Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovic.

Bislimi has confirmed that at the meeting with Lajcak has been discussed in a sequenced implementation plan for normalising relations between the two countries, as well as for the implementation annex.

The parties have reached compliance with this agreement in February in Brussels, while for the implementation annex in March in Ohrid.

“over the past week, Mr. Lajcak has brought us a new draft, which puts for the first time complete parallelism in implementing the Agreement, or more balanced implementation, and we have been trying to give final comments to this draft so that the same is acceptable to our side. I think there's been great willingness of Lajcak to accommodate our proposals and all have been well discussed in detail”, Bislim said, after the meeting.

Asked whether it has been discussed for the draft status of forming the Kosovo Serb majority municipalities ʹ delivered by a Western delegation weeks ago in Pristina and Belgrade, Bislimi has said this point has been on the agenda, but the Kosovo side has made its stance clear.

He has said there must be signatures of draft status and agreement on normalisation so that they can be implemented.

“cannot start implementing [without signing], because we need assurance that we have a valid agreement, which brings commitment to the other side”.

Asked whether the European officials' statement remains that the draft presentation is the best version Kosovo has accepted, Bislimi has said such an attitude is subjective, because Kosovo has not so far had offers”.

“We have had drafts that were circulated, but we can say that the draft that has been handed over to Kosovo by our friends of the European Union and the US, during the preparation of its provisions, has had increased care for the constitutional projections of the Constitution of Kosovo”, adding that the question of whether it is fully in accordance with the Constitutional Court of Kosovo and the Constitutional Court puts it.

Bislimi has said that at the meeting it has also been discussed on energy issues, with the registration of Serbian illegal license plates at the RKS Republic of Kosovo, and the holding of elections in northern Kosovo municipalities.

Asked whether there would be a next meeting under the dialogue between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq by the end of the year, Bislimi has said Lajcak did not mention concrete dates.

The “is a fact that the elections in Serbia have greatly damaged the process, because they are assigned as an umbrella for the performance of the dialogue process. This brings uncertainty about how we can move on. This meeting has not been discussed at all and no moment the option for future times”.

General elections in Serbia have been announced on 17 December. / REL/