11 minutes agoDoes the government have no decree?
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)The association of Serb majority municipalities cannot be created without a Kosovo Government decree, estimates Enver Hasani, professor of Law and International Relations at the University of Pristina and Dusan Janjic of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade. Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq, on June 18th, has declared that Serbs in Kosovo [...]
Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, on June 18th, has declared that Serbs in Kosovo will receive <x0 active decisions” in the coming period, without specifying what it is about.
He has stressed that in Orthodox St. Vidi's (Vidovdan) cream marked on June 28th, Serbs “peacefully will take their steps on the road to freedom”.
What is St. Vid?
St. Vid's festival is marked by Serbs in commemoration of June 28, 1389, when the Battle of Kosovo had taken place.
Serbian history recognises the outcome of this medieval battle as its spiritual victory, despite a major defeat of Balkan forces by forces from the Ottoman Empire.
On June 17th, the Serbian daily “Blic”, calling to sources, has reported that Serbs in Kosovo will independently start forming the Association of Serb-run municipalities.
According to this Serbian media medium, it is scheduled for a future assembly of the Serb people in Kosovo, in which the Association will be announced and its organs created.
Free Europe Radio has been directed to the Government of Kosovo to give a comment concerning Vuciqi's statements, as well as claims in the Serbian media that on June 28th it could be declared unilaterally forming association. But until the publication of this text, there has been no response.
What do you see about Association?
The association of Serb majority municipalities is designed to gather about ten municipalities in Kosovo inhabited by Serb majority: Northern Mitrovica, Klokot, Partesh, Ranilug, Gracanica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok, Novoberda, Leposaviq and Shrpca.
Under the agreements, the Association aims to represent the collective interests of these municipalities, separately in the field of education, health, urban and rural planning, as well as the economy.
The 2013 agreement on Association emphasises that it will be created by its statutes and structures, on the basis of the Kosovo municipalities' Association statute.
It also says that the association will exercise additional responsibilities, depending on how they are delegated by the central authorities and that there will be a role of representation in central authorities.
Under the 2015 agreement on principles to create association, the main objectives of association are: exercise a full look at the development of the local economy; exercise a thorough look at the principles of education; exercise a full look at the improvement of local primary and secondary health and social care; exercise a full look at the co-ordination of urban and rural planning; adopts measures for improving the local living conditions for returnees in Kosovo; develops, co-ordinates, facilitates research and development activities; promotes, distributes, and accons of common interest to its members; and the central authorities include them; and other local co-operation, local municipalities; and others.
Hasani: No agreement allows unilateral formation of association
While the Serbian president, Vuciq, has not specified the steps Serbs will take on St. Vid's Day, it remains unclear which eventual action of them could follow, says Enver Hasani, professor of Law and International Relations at the University of Pristina.
But, according to him, it is certain that without a decree on the part of the Kosovo government, the Association of Serb majority municipalities cannot be formed, even unilaterally.
“Stuti, which is the founding act of Association or the highest norms within it, breathes or breathes under a government decision. Then he goes to the Constitutional Court to confirm whether he is in accordance with the Constitution. This procedure figures in all the agreements, even in the last one in Ohrid, in that of Brussels in 2013 and that 2015, and there is no other option”, Hasani says.
He adds that the structures that make up the Association cannot be formed without the law enforcement of the statute.
The legal power of the Association statute, as Hasani says, can only be provided with an act of government and with <x0-letine” from the Constitutional Court, “which would imply that the statute and the act, with which it enters into force, are not anti-unconstitutional”.
On the contrary, as Professor Hasani says, if Serbs unilaterally declare formation of association, the crisis would deepen further.
And then it's no longer about self-organizing structures, but it's about producing a crisis, which has another dimension of what we see today and which Brussels (EU), as the mediator of Kosovo dialogue- Serbia) and parties”, Hasani points out, adding that however, he does not believe the Serbian side will enter, as he calls, in “such an adventure”.
Janjiq: Proclaiming Association would be a farce
Even Dusan Janjaq, director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade, estimates that Serbs cannot form a unilateral Association without a Kosovo Government decree and that all agreements reached, both in Brussels and Ohrid, do not predict otherwise.
According to him, President Vuciq's statements that Serbs “will take their steps on the road to freedom” on the day when St Vid's holiday is marked on June 28th, is only political exploitation of mythology for nationalist rhetoric.
Janjak says that the political exploitation of this mythology had also made it the former Serbian leader of the past two decades, Slobodan Milosevic, on June 28, 1989, for the homogenisation of Serbs in the former Yugoslavia.
Then, bloody wars began in the former area of that state, which in a decade resulted in its breakup.
Janjaq points out that Vuciki's statement is the continuation of that policy, which, as he says, concerns the territory rather than the people who live there.
He says he has no information whether Serbs in northern Kosovo will unilaterally declare forming the Association of Serb majority municipalities. But, as he says, if they do that, “would be a big mistake”.
If the self-execution of the Serb majority municipalities were to occur, I don't have the information that Blic Blic has for me it would be a farce. That is not the right response to the situation that was created in northern Kosovo. I see the situation in northern Kosovo at least, I see it as the brotherly response of (Kosovo Prime Minister Albin) Kurti, who also in the north is interested only in” territory, says Janjic.
He adds that Vuciqi has lost the step for the return of northern Serbs to Kosovo institutions, which they abandoned in November last year.
Serbs abandoned all institutions in the country's north, as a sign of opposition to the Kosovo Government's decision to reregister vehicles with illegal license plates in Serbia, at Kosovo's RKS-run license plates.
Serbs to reactivat parallel municipalities”
The return of the northern Serbs to Kosovo institutions, as Janjq says, is currently not simple because the Kosovo government does not allow that with automatism, without the legal procedures being implemented, which take time.
At this point, as Janjaq says, Vuciqi could take further steps in northern Kosovo.
I think they will have a statement, with which something will be announced, but Blic has interpreted as self-organization of Association. I don't think that's gonna happen. A part of the Serb community will announce that the Serb National Council has not died. Meanwhile, the rest (Serbs) in the north will do a new co-ordination of municipalities (parale, according to the Serbian system), which already have them, but will only activate. They already have them since 2015”, Janjiq points out.
The Serbian National Council has started functioning since the post-war period in Kosovo, and its goal has been to protect the interests of Serbs. This council consisted of politicians and activists different from the Serb community in Kosovo.
Since 2013, when the Serbian List was formed -- the largest Kosovo Serb party, which has the backing of official Belgrade -- has been cancelled.
That same year, within the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, agreement was reached on forming the Association of Serb majority municipalities, already the principles to agree on in 2015.
That same year, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo said the agreement on principles for establishing association was not in full harmony with the highest judicial act of the state, but the agreement could be harmonised through legal acts.
Since then, Kosovo governments, including the current one, have consistently faced the Serb side's demand and the pressure of international factors for forming association.
The implementation of all agreements reached in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, including the formation of the Association, also envisions the recent agreement towards normalising relations between the parties, reached on February 27th in Brussels, as well as reconciliation for the annex of its implementation, which was reached on March 18th in Ohrid.
The European Union has invited Kurti and Vuciqi for a meeting in Brussels this week, amid increased tensions between the two states.
Serbia's president has already declared he refuses to meet with Kurti, meanwhile, the latter has not yet decided whether to attend the Brussels meeting.
