In Brussels dialogue continues between Kosovo and Serbia

In Brussels on Monday, dialogue continues between Kosovo and Serbia with the meeting of the two states' chief negotiators. The focus of the meetings will be implementation of the Agreement on the road to normalising its reports and Anex.

Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, and Serbia's delegation chief, Petar Petkov, will initially have separate meetings with the European Union's special envoy for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, and then there will be a joint meeting.

Meetings are scheduled to start in the morning, while their duration will depend on the performance of discussions.

This is the first meeting of the chief negotiators after the high-level meeting between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, 2 May in Brussels. At that meeting, political leaders agreed to the joint declaration for the missing from the last war in Kosovo, and the first draft draft of the Kosovo Serb majority municipalities' statute was introduced.

It is expected that discussions on these issues will continue at the 15 May meeting, but it will also be discussed the current situation in northern Kosovo, inhabited by Serb majority, following the April 23rd local elections.

EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak, on the eve of the meeting in Brussels, has written on social networks that a full focus is needed on normalising reports and on implementing the agreement towards normalisation.

Kosovo and Serbia reached the agreement on February 27th in Brussels towards normalisation of the reports, meanwhile on March 18th in Ohrid, they agreed to the Annex for its implementation.

Lajcak prepared Monday's meeting through visits to Kosovo and Serbia last week.

Speaking of meetings in Pristina and Belgrade, including with Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti, and Serbian President Vuciq, Lajcak said that the leaders have conveyed expectations for focusing on normalising the reports and implementing the Ohrid Agreement.

“also underlined the importance of avoiding any co-ordinated movement that could harm the” process, Lajcak wrote. Meanwhile, referring to the visit he conducted in northern Kosovo, where he talked about the current situation, he has warned that “that I heard, has disturbed me”.

“So I reaffirmed the need to avoid any possibility of escalation and full concentration in normalisation”, he wrote.

The top European official has also indicated that he expects from Bislim and Petkoviqi to be willing to agree on concrete steps in implementing the Ohrid Agreement.

The EU expects that after Monday's meeting there will be meetings of working groups and experts, but also of the joint commission for monitoring implementation of the Ohrid Agreement.

Meanwhile, the Kosovo government has confirmed that Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislim has travelled to Brussels for the new round of dialogue. According to the Kosovo executive, Monday's meeting will focus on “the sequenced implementation of the basic agreement and implementation Annex”.

The parties have already expressed different positions about priorities regarding the implementation of provisions of the Agreement towards normalisation and its Annex.

Kosovo's executive insists all provisions of the agreement should be implemented, but Belgrade insists that the Association of Serb majority municipalities be established first.

Even the EU, according to a senior official, is of the opinion that establishing association is the main issue that will decide the fate of the entire process, and that issue is considered a top priority, even though according to the Anex of the agreement, all points should formally have the same importance.

The first draft of the statute for the establishment of Association, which was introduced in Brussels on May 2nd, was immediately rejected by the Government of Kosovo, and that rejection was expected for the EU.

Prime Minister Kurti had presented a vision of his self-awareness of the Serb community in Kosovo, which he said was inspired by Croatia's agreement with Serbia.

The Kosovo government has dismissed the Management Team, which has drafted the statute for Association, with the argument that this team has completed its mandate with the draft presentation. But this act of Kosovo executive in the EU is considered to be contrary to the dialogue agreement. The European bloc has voiced stance that this team of four Serb members should be functional until the adoption of the Association statute.

Kosovo and Serbia have reached two agreements on Association, in 2013 and 2015. But, the agreement on principles for establishing association, according to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, is not in full harmony with the highest judicial act of the state. However, the Constitution has said it can be harmonised with legal acts.