Lajcak: I'm heading towards Belgrade with new information and impressions

Lajcak met in the morning hours in Pristina with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and chief negotiator in the dialogue process with Serbia Besnik Bisimi. He spent the rest of the day in northern Mitrovica, where he met with Serbian politicians as well as representatives of civil society and media.

With Kurti, Lajcak said he developed a key “discussion for the road forward in the normalisation process after the May 2nd meeting.

It is important that we clearly understand the sequence of steps (that will be taken), so we had an important discussion in all aspects. I will have the same discussions tomorrow in Belgrade”, Lajcak said.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the European emissary said the goal of the meeting was to create a clear understanding of how it will be done from now on.

“We have the Agreement, we have the Annex, so we need to have a clear understanding of the first step, the second step and the third step”, he said, adding that the discussion with Kosovo's prime minister was a very intensive, but very important”.

Asked during the day how you see the solution to the formation of the Serb majority municipalities, when both sides have completely opposite views of what it should look like, Lajcak said that “would be naive to take a common stance from the start. ”

Now we have to sit down and start working, reach a deal, draw up the attitudes of each other. Of course, the common platform should be previous agreements and European models. Where there's will, there's a”, Lajcak said.

Agreement has been reached in terms of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia in 2013, while in 2015 the parties have agreed to the principles under which they must be formed. However, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has found that these principles are not in line with Kosovo laws, but that they can be harmonised.

Asked about the Croatian model for Association, for which the Kosovo government insists, Lajcak said that what is acceptable to the European Union is something that “is based on European norms and European values, and which is in line with existing European models”.

We've said since the beginning. I won't tell you more about this. I think I'm pretty clear”, he said.

He announced he will meet with the chief negotiators of the two states in the dialogue, with Besnik Bissim and Petar Petkov, respectively, on Monday and May 15th.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Kurti, through a post on the social Twitter network, said that at the meeting with Mr Lajcak, he underlined the importance of implementing the basic agreement reached in Ohrid with Serbia.

“I stressed the need for the basic agreement to be implemented as a whole and the need for the EU to hold Serbia responsible for the continuing violations of this” Agreement, he wrote.

While later, at a media conference Prime Minister Kurti reaffirmed that Kosovo is interested in implementing the Ohrid Agreement in all.

“We are interested in co-operating to further write a vision for the Serb community in Kosovo as far as the level of self-advancing is concerned. This is our goal in parallel with what should have full application and the faster”, Kurti said.

What did Lajcak say in the north?

Lajcak said the purpose of his visit to the north is to get” the first-hand information from people living here to see how they view the situation”.

He stressed that he has heard of many issues that the community there views as problematic, without revealing what they are.

Meanwhile, questioned what his expectations are, and when it is expected that the elected mayors in northern Kosovo will begin exercising their duties, he said his only expectation is that “we will find a solution that will not lead to escross”.

“There are political representatives who have authority, we are talking to them and we expect to find a solution”, he added.

On April 23rd of this year, local municipal elections were held in four Serb municipalities in Kosovo. These elections were announced after the majority of Serbs in that area resigned from Kosovo institutions.

Serbs, in general, boycotted the elections, and Albanian representatives were elected through votes from a very low voter exit in four municipalities.
According to CEC data, 1,567 voters or 3.47 percent of the total number of citizens there were eligible to vote.

Lajcak also met with representatives of the Serbian List in Northern Mitrovica.

After the meeting, the Serbian List announced that Lajcak discussed the political and security situation and that they estimate that Pristina “open issues are resolved with unilateral movements and institutional violence”.

The Serbian list said it does not recognise the election results that have been held in municipalities in the north.

The “we reiterated that it is the decision of the Serbian people to leave the institutions and not participate in these false elections, as well as that none of the northern Serbs will return to institutions until the Serbian municipalities' Association is formed in line with the 2013 and 2015 agreements reached in Brussels, as well as to withdraw all special units from northern Kosovo and Metohija”, the Serbian List's announcement concludes.

The Serbian list is the largest party of Kosovo Serbs, which has Belgrade's support.

Meanwhile, Lajcak continued talks in northern Mitrovica with other political representatives of Kosovo Serbs.

During his visit to northern Mitrovica, Miroslav Lajcak was asked about the issue of opening the bridge over the Iber River between South Mitrovica and North.

The opening of this bridge was discussed days ago at the initiative of several North Mitrovica municipality aemobists.

It's in the hands of two sides, they have to agree. We want the opening of the bridge to contribute to greater stability than to destabilizing. Therefore, I insist we should use the dialogue platform to reconcile for a road ahead of”, Lajcak said.

Officials from the European Union have said Lajcak's visit to Kosovo and Serbia aims to prepare future steps within dialogue between the two countries, mediated by the EU.

On May 2nd, in Brussels the latest round of high-level dialogue has been held, between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq.

At this meeting, the parties have reached reconciliation for the Declaration of Missing Persons from the recent war in Kosovo, but the draft status establishment of the Serb majority municipalities' Association, which has been drafted by a management team, comprised of four members of the Serb community.

This draft has been rejected by the Kosovo government, and a day later, members of the Management Team have been dismissed by Kosovo authorities.

Serbia demands that association be established, meanwhile, the government of Prime Minister Kurti has voiced itself against a single-ethnic association.