EU: Drift-state starting for Association, Croatia offers its model

In a debate on Kosovo, held Tuesday (09.05) at the European Parliament, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborship Affairs Oliver Varhely has also been present. For the draft status of Kosovo's management team, it should be the starting point in discussions on the establishment of the Serb Majority Commission Association. The association according to the draft status quo, which was introduced on 2 May in Brussels, will be a specific <x0-form organisation, founded in order to protect human and minority rights”, Varhely has said.

Croatia offers its national minority model

The European commissioner stressed the establishment of association as a obligation derived from dialogue agreements. The “must be implemented all obligations from the dialogue, without delays and unconditional conditions, including from the 2013 and 2015 agreements on the creation of the Serb Majort Commission Association. As special representative for dialogue Miroslav Lajcak has underlined, the draft proposal presented at the last meeting by the management team is the starting point for further discussions on establishing the association”, Varhely said.

A model for Kosovo has offered Croatia's Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, who was visiting Pristina on Tuesday. The Croatian model for dealing with national minority rights can serve as a good model for Kosovo as well, Radman said, adding that his country supports any agreement between Kosovo and Serbia. According to Croatian Foreign Minister, his country's model was successful, but there are numerous models in the world that can be used.

Gervailla: We Do Not Need a Second Serbian Republic

Kosovo Foreign Affairs Minister Donika Grovalla, in turn, said Kosovo has reviewed numerous models for protection of minorities, but underlined that Kosovo's “Constitution offers minorities much more rights than all other models”. We've been treating models, we've seen what they are that don't come to us saying, because they violate the red lines we have in this dialogue. No formation, no kind of association, no mechanism can be implemented in Kosovo, if it first violates the country's sovereignty, second the country's Constitution, and third the functionality of the Republic of Kosovo, because these three elements are the basis for functioning of the state. What we have seen in Bosnia and Herzegovina through Republika Srpska installed there is a complete deadlock of state functioning. It will not happen in the Republic of Kosovo. This region has enough of a Republika Srpska and there is no need for a second”, said Minister Donika Grovalla.

The First Drama of Association

A week ago, the management team for drafting the statute for Association of Serb-run municipalities introduced the first draft in Brussels. This draft, has 67 articles and is divided into nine chapters, such as general provisions, community issues, organisational structures, membership in association, and relations between member municipalities, assets and incomes, direct decision-making forms, changes in the Association statute, break-up of Association and transitional and final provisions. According to the draft authorities who published the media in Pristina on Tuesday, the Association will be a special <x0-form organisation, founded with the aim of protecting human and minority rights” of all residents and communities living in municipalities that are part of the Association. Its administrative centre, based on the proposed draft status, is North Mitrovica. There will be the Assembly of Association, chosen by member municipalities, and the Parliament is the supreme body of association.

This draft statute, which published the media in Pristina, was also sharply rejected by opposition Democratic League of Kosovo Chairman Lumir Abdixhiku. According to him, the draft statute document, drafted by the management team, is more than association and is more than Autonomi, is state within the state. He wrote on social networks that “a body that issues laws, manages national assets, public wealth and natural resources, a body that organises elections, holds referenda and receives competencies from the Parliament and the Government of Kosovo, has no place in our constitutional and state arrangement”.

Prime Minister Kurti's Draft-vision

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti rejected this draft state as soon as it was introduced in Brussels, saying it is incompatible with the Constitution and Kosovo laws, but also European values. At the same time, Kurti proposed a draft-vision as he calls it, what the values and principles that regulate the issue of minority communities in Kosovo should be. In this document of Kosovo's prime minister, among other things, he is said to offer the possibility to members of the Serb community in Kosovo to promote and protect their rights through “self-reservation co-ordinator”, direct communication channel with the Government of Kosovo, as well as opportunities to be financed by Kosovo and other countries, including Serbia. And Serbia's president, following Kurti's refusal to make the draft Association presented by the management team, said that “is very concerned, because it is clear that Pristina does not want to meet its 10 years earlier commitment to the formation of the Serb majority municipalities”. “Kosovo will either accept what we agreed to in 2015, or it will be the end of everything”, Serbian President Aleksandar Vukic said, after meeting 2 May in Brussels with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

A vision draft for the Association that was introduced by Prime Minister Kurti is backing Great Britain's Ambassador to Kosovo, Nicholas Abbot, who said it is the time that “Kosovo was introduced on its part, “ta formally introduces the draft status state for association”. According to him, such a document should be presented based on the draft division presented by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Kosovo's “Aleates want to see progress in normalising relations with Serbia”, Ambassador Abbott said, confirming that the British envoy for the Western Balkans, Stuart Peach, visits Kosovo this week.

In 2013 Kosovo and Serbia agreed on the establishment of Association. And in 2015 they agreed on his principles. But in 2015, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo found that 22 articles of Association are contrary to the Constitution of Kosovo. The establishment of association is already envisioned with the agreement reached in Ohrid on March 18th between Kosovo and Serbia. The US envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said last week that “implementation of the Ohrid Agreement starts with the Association of municipalities with the Serb Majority in Kosovo”.