New dialogue round in Brussels ends without results

The meeting has yielded no results, though, according to participants, a range of topics have been discussed.

This round of talks was focused on implementing the Agreement on the road to normalising reports between Kosovo and Serbia and its Anex.

Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said that at the 15 May meeting, the parties saw the direction in which the dialogue process is going. He said that on the agenda of the talks it was “everything dealing with the implementation of the<x1nd Ohrid Agreement.

Bislimi confirmed that during last week's visit, EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak sent to Pristina and Belgrade some documents pertaining to the competencies of the mechanism for implementation of the agreement, with implementation of the Declaration on Extinction, as well as to its approach on how to proceed with implementation of the agreement that concerns the formation of the Serb majority municipalities.

The agreement we reached in Ohrid clearly states that none of the articles can condition other articles and that all articles will be implemented independently. Also, it is said that neither side will block the implementation of any particular article. This is our guide. I don't believe there is any readiness from the EU to flee a document they themselves have brought and published on their website”, Bislimi said at the end of the meeting.

So far, there are no warnings as to what the next steps will be, and when Bislimi and Petkov will meet again.

Meanwhile, Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovovic, has confirmed that the Serbian side has insisted on forming the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo, but that, according to him, it is not easy to negotiate with Pristina.

“When we had to talk about important issues, such as implementing further implementation of the formation of the Association of Serb majority municipalities, the question of the missing, whether what or how to do next with the Declaration of Missing Persons, but also other important issues such as freedom of movement, about issues involving the lives of Serbs in Kosovo, the institutional violence of [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti, which occurs to Serbs every day, the attacks by the Kosovo Police, the shooting on Serbs... for these, Bislim wanted to give no concrete answers. All the while, with various interventions trying to make the flow of the dialogue understood by”, Petkovic told reporters.

Meanwhile, after the Lajcak meeting, he wrote on Twitter that he has discussed the road ahead towards implementing the agreement towards normalising reports. According to him, the May 15th meeting aimed at “clarifying open issues”.

“Discutions will continue”, he stressed.

Before the trilateral meeting, Lajcak held separate meetings with Bisimi and Petkov.

It was 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.

EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak, on the eve of the meeting in Brussels, had 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.

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.