DW: Yesterday's meeting in Brussels saw no results, impasses on Association

Entrance to implementation of the agreement's 7th point.

Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said that at the 15 May meeting, held in Brussels, on the agenda of the talks, it was “everything dealing with implementation of the Ohrid Agreement and how the parties see the direction in which the process is going. According to him, during the past week, EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak sent several <x1-> documents to Pristina and Belgrade concerning the competencies of the mechanism for implementation of the agreement, with the implementation of the Declaration to those already signed”. Just as the implementation of the agreement's 7th point should be continued, dealing with the formation of the Serb majority municipalities”. But at this point, there's always getting stuck.

In the agreement we reached in Ohrid, it is clear 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 avoid a document that itself has brought and published on their website”, said Kosovo chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi, after the end of a several-hour meeting in Brussels, not knowing whether there will be renewed meetings despite warnings from the Lajcak mediator.

Petkov: Kosovo makes dialogue flow meaningless

For the Serb side, the topic of the Association of Serb majority municipalities is a priority, though the official Pristina does not see it as such. According to Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkov, it is not easy to negotiate with Pristina. “When we had to talk about important issues, such as further implementation of the forming of the Serb majority municipalities, the question of the missing, whether what or how to do next after the Declaration of Missing Persons, but also other important issues, such as freedom of movement, issues involving the lives of Serbs in Kosovo, the institutional violence of Kurti, which occurs to Serbs every day, the Kosovo Police attacks, the shooting on many other Serbs, for these things. Bislimin did not want to give any concrete answers”, Petar Petkovovic said, complaining about his Kosovo counterpart, who according to Petkov, “tried to make dialogue flow” meaningless.

Despite this disagreement between Bislim and Petkoviq, EU mediator in dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, wrote on Twitter that the “tation of May 15th, aimed to clarify open issues” and warned that “differences will continue”. Lajcak met with partition chief negotiators Bislimi and Petkovovic, and prior to these meetings he had written that “is needed a full focus on normalising reports and in implementing the agreement towards normalisation”.

Next step: meeting working groups

Earlier this month, Kosovo and Serbia's two main leaders -- Prime Minister Abin Kurti and President Aleksandar Vuciq -- agreed and signed a joint statement for those missing from the war in Kosovo. But they had fierce objections about a draft of the majority-sebe municipalities the Kosovo management team consisting of four Serbs introduced before them. Vuciq agreed, but to Prime Minister Kurti, the draft Association was in full opposition to the Kosovo Constitution.

However, despite differences, the European Union, according to mediator Lajcak, expects that after yesterday's Bislimi-Petkovic meeting, there will be meetings of working groups and experts, but also of the joint commission for monitoring implementation of the Ohrid Agreement. Kosovo and Serbia on February 27th in Brussels reached the agreement towards normalisation of the reports, already on March 18th in Ohrid, North Macedonia, agreed to the Annex of its implementation. (DW)