Osmani: Demarquement with Montenegro is over for me

In an interview for Montenegrin television “Vijesti”, Osmani also said the Franco-German plan for normalising relations with Serbia as a good platform for continuing negotiations remains to be seen if Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, will accept it, Klankosova broadcast.tv.

“Viest”: Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has warned of revising the border agreement between Kosovo and Montenegro by 2015, claiming that Kosovo has lost 8,200 hectares of territory with that agreement. Has the Montenegrin government officially requested that review and discussed it with our officials during this visit to Podgorica?

Osmani: No. I'm here first of all to see how we can open a new chapter of co-operation. In all, in terms of borders, that issue ended in parliament a few years ago, when that agreement was ratified between Montenegro and Kosovo. Then there is a bilateral agreement between the then presidents of Kosovo and Montenegro, a kind of statement under which the next steps --” are highlighted.

The “Declaration signed between the two presidents envisions, among other things, that a new technical commission with experts from both sides will be formed to sit down and address every open issue. So I personally am not against a technical commission to sit down and look at it from the expert's point of view, but not from a political point of view. In the end, I don't see any open political issues between Kosovo and Montenegro, and I don't see this as an open issue that would somehow damage our” relations.

I see this first of all as an expert issue and an issue that should be resolved between experts on the technical commission, as predicted by the two presidents' Declaration, which was signed in 2015 and which, of course, can be implemented without damaging relations between our two countries in any way. So, of course, there are a lot of people who want to see this as the cause of the bad relations between Montenegro and Kosovo, but we shouldn't satisfy that desire”.

“Viest”: Why did all previous Kosovo governments and authorities, including what you and your party are part of, not recognise Montenegrins as minorities in the Kosovo Constitution, even though this has been persistently demanded for more than 10 years? Why is it a problem for you?

Osmani: I am absolutely in her favor and certainly support this idea and I have always supported it. However, the complexity of this issue was never linked to the lack of the will of previous governments and four parliaments. The complexity lies in constitutional procedures, the way the mandates are divided into parliament.

How many countries will receive certain communities is a constitutional provision that would require an amendment and that the amendment be adopted, there should be not only two-thirds in parliament, but two-thirds of the minority communities, which will vote for, which means that the Serb community has had the right to vote and I have not seen such a will on their part to vote for that constitutional amendment.

If it were up to me, it would definitely happen, because I don't see any harm in having a Montenegrin minority community, and there are certainly other communities that would like to be. Montenegrin representatives have made a big contribution to our country and continue to make their contribution to the advisory council for communities that are constitutional and for that it is very important that they continue to make their contribution to all levels at which they are now involved, especially in Government. I repeat, it's not about our lack of will, it's about very complex constitutional provisions and procedures.