Citaku: Kurti miscalculated, degraded dialogue, and Kosovo profits nothing

Democratic Party of Kosovo Vice-President Vlora Citaku says Article seven of the European Union's proposal for normalising Kosovo-Serbia relations is more than the Association of Serb majority municipalities. According to her, the same gives autonomy to Kosovo Serbs, meanwhile, also opening Ahtisaari's package through the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In an interview for Kosova Prees, Citaku says Prime Minister Kurti has made the wrong calculations in dialogue, continuing status-quo with Serbia, while adding that there is nothing concrete about Kosovo's possible benefits from the co-ordinated agreement with Serbia.

Article 7 opens President Ahtisaari's comprehensive package, the package on which constitutional and legal order is built in Kosovo. This is the first one, speaks of an autonomy for Kosovo Serbs, and second, the new element was the issue of the Serbian Orthodox Church. We believe that this issue is very well regulated with President Ahtisaari's package and the existing legal infrastructure in Kosovo. The trends are to create an entity similar to what we have seen in Montenegro, it is clear that the prime minister is Dakoruder on the issue. The 11th point is about the application annex, and it's clear that the parties have agreed on this issue as well... the autonomy exceeds the association, there is no doubt. For implementation of the Agreement for Association there is a particular article under the document”, she says.

Even Citaku says there is no element in this agreement that would mean recognition de-facto, much less de-jure.

“In this form de-phacto Serbia has known Kosovo since 1999, Serbia has not government with Kosovo. Serbia has accepted our travel documents, but forget that we have an integrated border management agreement. There's a border with a country that you consider part of. There is no new element in this agreement that would mean de-jure recognition or de-facto. The only new thing is that the two sides have pledged that dialogue will continue, and how many years will Kosovo lose in this process remains to be seen”, Citaku claims.

According to her, Kurti has degraded dialogue with Serbia through his misbehave in the process.

“Now we will have a new status-Look, the prime minister has made a wrong calculation, he has thought that by reopening old agreements he will change the format of dialogue and the result. But unfortunately he has only degraded it and we today have an agreement that will produce a new status quo, but does not complete the dialogue process with Serbia”, she adds.

Meanwhile, it also questions Kosovo's potential benefits in the international arena after the deal.

“There was nothing concrete in that draft agreement agreed on Kosovo's possible benefits in this process. Stigma, the sentence Serbia will not prevent Kosovo from European integration has existed even in previous agreements. But what prevents Kosovo from European integration is not Serbia, but the five EU countries are not connoisseurs. What prevents Kosovo's membership in the UN is not Serbia, but Russia and China, which have veto”, says Citaku.

Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq have met on 27 February in Brussels, where, according to dialogue mediator Josep Borrell, the parties have agreed to the EU's proposal for dialogue, which contains 11 articles. However, the same document has not been signed. Prime Minister Kurti, after the meeting, said Vuciq was not ready to sign it.

The next meeting, to be discussed again on the agreement and its application annex, is expected to be held on March 18th in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Article seven, which is being criticised by Deputy Mayor Citaku, says Kosovo will provide an appropriate level of self-government for the Serb community in Kosovo, based on the Council of Europe's relevant instruments.