6 minutes agoEscobar: Ohrid Agreement Implementation Launches With Association
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)The US envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said Wednesday that implementation of the Kosovo agreement Serbia for normalising relations, which was reached in Ohrid, begins with the Association of Major Serb municipalities in Kosovo. He made these comments a day after the political summit between Kosovo and Serbia [...]
He made those comments a day after the political summit between Kosovo and Serbia in Brussels, in which the parties discussed the draft Association statute, whose establishment is also required under the Ohrid Agreement, which Mr. Escobar deemed legally binding.
The implementation starts with forming the Association of Serb-run municipalities”, Mr. Escobar said, stressing that within two weeks the two countries' top negotiators are expected to meet to discuss this issue and work on a working statute.
“This process is very important and both sides -- namely, Kosovo -- should take it seriously and move forward in an accelerated way”, said Mr. Escobar, underlining that the European Union and the United States are focused on the Ohrid Agreement becoming reality and that reality becomes with Association.
He said there was little progress about establishing association in Tuesday's talks, which European Union Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said were a symbolic “step on the issue.
The Association Law drafted by an management team consisting of four members of the Serb community, who have been relieved today of the Kosovo government's decision-making post, was rejected by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who named it incompatible with the constitution and Kosovo laws but also European values.
Prime Minister Kurti said he has proposed a draft view of what the values and principles that regulate the issue of minority communities in Kosovo should be like, inspired by an agreement to normalise relations between Serbia and Croatia.
Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, said the worried “since, as “said, it is clear that Pristina does not want to meet the” obligation to establish association.
Kosovo and Serbia agreed in 2013 on the establishment of association, and in August 2015 on its principles. That same year the Constitutional Court of Kosovo found that a large part of these principles are contrary to the Kosovo Constitution.
“They will either accept what we agreed to in 2015, or it will be the end of everything”, the Serbian president said.
Mr. Escobar said the solution should be sought in a compromise between the sides, denying to have pressure only on Kosovo on this issue.
This should be a negotiated statute protecting the rights of the Serb minority in Kosovo. Our expectations and aspirations are clear and high, and our support for the parties to achieve an advanced position is clear”, he said.
The Ohrid Agreement calls for good neighbourly relations between Kosovo and Serbia, recognition of documents and symbols, and respect for each other's sovereignty and earthly integrity. It requires that the parties not stumble each other into integration processes, but does not require mutual recognition. The plan also envisions meeting all previously reached agreements in the European Union-brokered talks.
But observers warn that the agreement that would have to lower tensions between the parties has not changed their political legalisation.
Similarly, US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill, who said talks are difficult and poor progress, said Wednesday.
It's a bad tone. Nobody says anything good between meetings under negotiations. It's a difficult process and issues are difficult with roots in history and war. But, I don't know what the alternative is”, Ambassador Hill said at a conference in Skopje on regional security challenges, underlining that talks should be accelerated.
