EU: government cannot shoulder municipal responsibilities for Association

He said this draft was personally presented to Prime Minister Kurti by the EU facilitator along with the national security advisers of Germany, France and Italy and the US Special Representative. Stano said the government of Kosovo cannot give up its responsibilities of dialogue or delegate them to Serb majority municipalities. In 2013, Kosovo signed the Brussels Agreement, which was ratified by the Kosovo Assembly by a two-thirds majority. 11 years later, Kosovo has not yet taken the necessary steps towards its creation and is therefore failing to meet its clear obligation under international law, which was later repeated in the 2015 and 2023 agreements. According to the 2013 and 2015 Dialogue Agreements, the Constitution for the establishment of ESM must be drafted and discussed in Dialog. Any proposal should be discussed with Serbia and the EU mediator and be in line with the 2013 and 2015 agreements. This also means that the Government of Kosovo cannot draw up the statue outside Dialogue”, Stano said.

The prime minister, Albin Kurti, has refused to institute Association on the European proposal, saying that “we have an association of municipalities, if anyone wants another, this should be done by the municipality. It does not form the assistant prime minister or establish”. But, the European Union considers that the government cannot avoid the responsibilities it has taken in the process of dialogue and that it delegates Serb majority municipalities. According to EU spokesman Peter Stano, the draft was handed over to Prime Minister Kurti personally by EU facilitator along with France, Germany and Italy's National Security Councillors, as well as special US representative. The “Government cannot give up its responsibilities under the Dialogue or delegate them to Kosovo's majority Serb municipalities. In October 2023, in an effort to advance the normalisation process, the EU supported by member states and its partners as the US officially introduced a European draft status reform for the establishment of association. This European draft is based on European models and good practices, as well as on Kosovo's legal framework. The draft was handed over to Prime Minister Kurti personally by the EU's Facilitator along with the National Security Councils of France, Germany and Italy, as well as US Special Representative”.

In addition to handing over the European draft state to the Government of Kosovo by European and American Emissaries, EU spokesman Peter Stano recalls that the similar draft was accepted by Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian President Vuciq even at the 26 October 2023 meeting in Brussels. “in a high-level meeting in support of Dialogue in the presence of President Macron, Prime Minister Melon and Chancellor Scholz, both sides accepted the European draft status draft in principle. In its conclusions of December 2023, the European Council welcomed Serbia and Kosovo's <x1-wise preparedness to accept the draft status submitted by EU facilitator”. This is an official recognition of the document by the 27 EU member states. The labeling of the European designer as “just a non-paper” ignores the European Union Council's invitation to continue on this basis and further delays the prospect of its creation, Stano said.

The European Union has called on Kosovo to take concrete steps to establish association, while for Serbia the fulfillment of its obligations stemming from the agreement to normalise relations. “Sorry that a year after the parties approved the document in principle, no progress was made in its creation in line with the European draft state. In line with its official re-agement to Dialogue and full implementation of all Dialogue Agreements on September 2024. We call on Kosovo to move ahead with its establishment without further delays. Serbia is expected to fulfil its obligations stemming from the Agreement for Normalisation, in parallel with Kosovo, to move forward with the establishment of association based on the European Drift Stattutti, in line with the implementation plan proposed by the EU facilitator”, Stano told Rtv21.

The Kosovo government through a response by the spokesman, Progress Kryeziu, has said it insists that there be signatures of its Basic Agreement and Implementation Annex, demanding that the order of things under way be respected.

“Therefore, we cannot one year after last October meeting, in which our bid for signing the package is rejected, remove the draft EU statute from the package and drop the recognition package at least de facto reciprocal. We recall that the draft EU statute does not have the signing of either EU High Representative, Borrell or his emissary Lajcak, the less Prime Minister Kurti's. The status of draft statute is that of a non-paper, one of several proposals that have been made in the past years”, Kryeziu said.

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