EU confirms work starts these days for first steps to implement agreement

Kosovo and Serbia are obliged to quickly implement what they agreed to at the Ohrid summit. Failure to comply means abandoning the road to the EU, and that will have consequences. From Brussels they have made it known that these days work begins for the first steps of implementation, intended to be completed by the end of the year.

European leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday and called on Kosovo and Serbia to quickly and confidently implement their respective obligations stemming from the March 18th meeting between Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Aleksandar Vuciq in Ohrid.

Kurti and Vuciq have agreed to start implementing all provisions of the Agreement and the Annex immediately.

European Union's top foreign policy and security spokesman Peter Stano told Gazeta Express on Friday that the process for the first steps of implementation would be initiated in the coming days.

In the following days, with approval from the European Council (= The leaders of the 27 member states) EU institutions will initiate the process for operation of the first steps of the implementation phase along with the Pauls. As the High Representative said Thursday: I would advise them to do their job”, Stano said.

As the parties have agreed, provisions of the Agreement (including Anex) will now be placed in Chapter 35 for Serbia and the Special Group for Normalisation agenda for Kosovo.

“This means that parties will be contracted to implement provisions if they want to make progress towards the EU. Failure to comply means to abandon the path to the EU”, Stano said.

EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Josep Borrell has informed European leaders of the Ohrid talks and has stressed that Kosovo and Serbia must now fulfill what they agreed to.

He has also said that any speculation about the signing or validity of the Agreement is in vain.

“The history of dialogue has proved that the importance of the agreement is measured by the level of implementation, not signing. He was very clear that the agreement has agreed, must be implemented and there is no room for elections”, Stano said.

The international reputation and credibility of the parties is also at risk here”, Stano stressed, underlining that “in order to be seen as a reliable EU partner, the parties must apply what they have promised”.

Implementation will take place in parallel, within 30 days the Joint Monitoring Committee is established

Kosovo and Serbia have also agreed to establish a joint committee within 30 days, which will monitor implementation of all provisions of the agreement and be led by the European Union.

“Piles agree to create a Joint Monitoring Committee, led by the EU, within 30 days. The implementation of all provisions will be provided and monitored by the Joint Monitoring Committee”, said at one of the Implementation Annex points.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Thursday in the country that all obligations from this “asum agreement are in effect”, citing the Joint Monitoring Committee.

There is also a binding mechanism in the form of negative consequences for the state that does not apply. Co-operation states will receive a boost in their respective process of accession to the European Union and financial support from the European Union. Disrespecting obligations will bring the opposite”, Kurti said.

Claiming that between Kosovo and Serbia “does not have the right degree of confidence” and that among them even “there are high degree of distrust in these talks”, Kurti said both sides should go together step by step towards implementation.

“We cannot have unilateral implementation of the agreement as we cannot even have unilateral signing of the” agreement, he said.

The European Union's minister for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said on Tuesday they are working to establish the Joint Monitoring Committee.

We are currently working intensively to determine the objectives of this Joint Monitor Committee. It will be the authority”, Lajcak said in an interview for Radio Free Europe and Euronews in the Serbian language.

The Joint Monitoring Committee is a platform where we will discuss things. It will be established as agreed, within 30 days of the adoption of this Anex”, the Slovak diplomat stressed.

Lajcak will invite chief negotiators Besnik Bislimi and Petar Petkoviq to a meeting in Brussels. He confirmed on Tuesday that this will be the next step in dialogue, showing that both countries' representatives will discuss steps to implement the agreement.

In Brussels, a proposal on how to start implementing the agreement is being prepared.

We are preparing our proposal, I expect them to have their proposals, and for me the best approach to moving forward is to proceed step by step: one side takes one step, another side another. I don't want to talk about these steps right now, because there's no official platform, an official document and we have to agree on that. But, I assure you that we are very focused, very determined and we will make sure that what we agreed on will be implemented”, Lajcak said.

He has not denied that the agreement will be required to be implemented by the end of the year, due to elections and important issues expected to occur within the EU in 2024. This is not a secret”, Lajcak said.

We have said many times that we want to complete this process during the current mandate of the EU leadership, the European Commission, but also the American administration. There will be a new political reality next year. There are elections in Europe, in the United States, there will be less attention, less commitment. We believe we have enough time to complete this process successfully and implement the provisions of this agreement. But all of this depends on the commitment of the” parties, he said.