After the failure of the KiE, Gervala tries to resent the EU: We don't follow the version they proposed for Association.

Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Grovalla said the Kosovo government will not implement the version proposed by the European Union for establishing association unless Serbia implements the obligations stemming from the Brussels agreement.

“We do not implement that draft, which is within the Brussels process, without pledging Serbia to implement its share of the work as well. Therefore, we have to divide things or we are dealing with Association in Brussels or we are dealing with it in Kosovo. But the two processes we can't tie together”, Gervala declared the Voice of America.

Gervala said that last autumn the Kosovo government submitted its comments on this EU version, but has so far received no answers. That document in the form that it is and in the numbers it has surrendered is unable to surrender on our part to the Constitutional Court”.

The failure to take concrete measures towards establishing association unable Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe. The drill described as <x0political, unfair and unreasonable the demands of several European Union countries, for Pristina to take concrete steps towards establishing association with the goal of membership in the Council.

During the interview for Voice of America, Minister Gervala said the government is ready for early parliamentary elections, whenever the opposition is ready, but if there is consensus among all political forces. “We cannot go to the polls with prime partners from the opposition”, he said.

Voice of America: Lady minister, is the country heading towards new parliamentary elections, and when can they be expected?

Donika Gervala: In the past three years, the work of the elected government on February 14, 2021, has been associated with successes that have not been expected before our choice by anyone. It's not just economic development. Law enforcement, increased standards of democracy, but also remarkable successes in raising the country's economic level, employment, tax revenues, customs, and so on. These have proved that this government is secure, has fulfilled expectations, and has even surpassed them in multiple ways. However, if the opposition in Kosovo thinks we should go to new elections and there is a consensus on that, we will not prevent this process. But, we can't go to elections selectively, with selective partners from the opposition. We expect the opposition to be serious in its calls for elections and not only to do so through the media, where it is not set for new elections. We are ready whenever the opposition is ready. We think it would be better for the elections to be held over long days than in the short winter days. However, we are also willing to carry out our mandate. This would be the first time a elected government would complete its mandate after the country's independence.

Voice of America: Lady Gervalla, the leaders of Germany, France and Italy, had sent a letter to Prime Minister Kurti to make it clear that no project would be accepted other than what is known as the EU Association project. Why did you choose at the last minute, when it seemed that everything had failed for Kosovo in the Council of Europe to make an offer for another project? The opposition has criticised you for being government games. How do you respond to such criticism?

Donika Gervala: Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe is an appropriate step. The same opposition strongly criticised us in May 2022, when we submitted the application for membership, saying we were asking for it and that these are political games, because you will not succeed. We have not only succeeded, but over the past two years we have completed two important stages. The first has been to pass our request from the ministerial council to the Parliamentary Assembly. The second stage has been extremely important, taking the decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, with 82 per cent of the vote, including by MPs from the countries, who do not recognise Kosovo's independence, who have given their positive vote regarding the agreement that Kosovo is a functional parliamentary democracy and has met all conditions required for membership in the Council of Europe. All the other demands are political, which we think are unfair and unreasonable, because if the Assembly found all the conditions fulfilled, then it would have to have some obligation to the Ministerial Council to further the procedure. It is true that three heads of state have sent a letter giving their pledges since after membership in the Council of Europe, some of the concerns that have been presented during the membership process will have to be addressed properly. The letter mentioned is what the prime minister sent to the leaders of these three states weeks ago. So this is not about the last offer we made. We submitted the latest offer because we had signals from partners and states important to Kosovo that such a demand would be viewed with sympathy and could get support. So it's about the offer we made at the last moment. Second, we sent this because we wanted to be constructive and to show that we are willing to work more specifically on our topics and obligations. I am very convinced that Kosovo's path to the Council of Europe, the European Union and NATO is a necessary way. There are no other options for Kosovo. The more convincing results we achieve at home, the easier membership in these mechanisms will be.

Voice of America: Referring to what is mentioned that Mr. Kurti spoke of another proposal, what was the proposal?

Donika Gervala: The other proposal has been public and displayed during direct meetings or phone calls or letters, has been a proposal that if our partners want we can address the issue of association in the form they want to even address. But we are not able to address the issue of association only in Brussels because in Brussels we have pledged two agreements, last year's February agreement and the agreement on the sequence and implementation of this agreement in March, and therefore a draft that has been handed over to us by Lajcak over an Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo, is seen only in the framework of the package along with those two requirements, those two agreements we have made. The extraction of association from this package makes no sense, so if we think that association is the subject of dialogue in Brussels, then we should treat it as part of the package in Brussels.

Voice of America: Madam Minister, the European Union version you refer to is made available to you about six months ago and you offered to send another option to the Constitutional Court. Does this mean that you are virtually considered unacceptable by the European Union?

Donika Gervala: The version that has been brought to us is brought into the framework of the overall package in Brussels -- that is, within the dialogue that is being developed with Serbia, facilitated by the European Union, and only in that sense -- in that context can that draft be seen without judging whether it is good or bad. We have sent our comments; we have not yet received answers to the comments we sent about that draft, and we have sent them immediately last autumn. While if we see the issue of a format that the Serb community could have a self-organization within the laws and within the constitutional order of the Republic of Kosovo, then instead of expecting a process which Serbia blocks at every step and does not accept as such, we would have to sit down and we would have to choose for ourselves. At this point we were, this was our offer. Let's not cut the blockades. We will not implement that draft, which is within the Brussels process, without Serbia pledging to implement its share of the work as well. So we have to share things either we're dealing with the Association in Brussels or we're treating it in Kosovo, but the two processes can't connect together.

Voice of America: That means the only reason you don't accept the European Union's version of what you say is that Belgrade is not signing agreements?

Donika Gervala: No. I told you we sent our comments about it. Our comments are conservative and we expect answers to our comments on this.

Voice of America: So why wasn't the European Union version sent to the Constitutional Court?

Donika Gervala: We cannot send drafts to the Constitutional Court because the Constitutional Court...

Voice of America: Fredrich Ebert's draft was also...

Donika Gervala: No, we didn't even say we were gonna send him. We have said that based on the principles of a proposal that he has made, a study that Fredrich Ebert Strigftung has done, we would write the draft of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, which we would embrace and then send to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court doesn't handle drafts, it doesn't handle work papers, it's treating documents. The Constitutional Court deals with laws and decisions, but that document, in the form it is in and in the case in which it is handed over, is unable to surrender on our part to the Constitutional Court.

Voice of America: Madam Minister, one last question. Last week Kosovo and Serbia delegations met for the seventh time in Brussels, but without reaching agreement on the dinar issue. Any chance of an agreement being reached?

Donika Gervala: We were first confronted when the Kosovo Central Bank issued a new regulation, on all sides we were faced with the demand to address it urgently, to address the issue of implementing that regulation urgently. As you can see, we've been talking about implementation several times, so not about regulation, not about the legitimacy of that regulation, but about how and what period we could implement that regulation completely. About that we have gone to Brussels and talked to the Serbian side, but as usual, while Serbia shouts that things are very urgent, it doesn't leave a chance to take advantage of things and neglect them too. Therefore, we continue to implement regulation because the regulation is of an independent institution of the Republic and needs to be implemented in full. If Serbia continues to delay the processes in Brussels, then we will have to find other forms of how to implement.