Bislimi s '%i stopped charges against Borrell and Lajcak: The EU has been fair in this process, clear preference for accruing Serbia's demands

When we talk about the European Union, regional foreign policy and reforms that need to be advanced, I want to ask you about dialogue with Serbia, which seems to be stuck. In addition to other tasks you have, you are also the chief negotiator for the Kosovo side in this dialogue. What are your proposals to get the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue out of crisis?

Bislimi: In fact, there is no dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, but there is dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, because city representatives do not go but representatives of governments of the two countries. Dialogue in Brussels has had two main objectives: the first goal is the full normalisation of the reports between Kosovo and Serbia, and the second goal is to support the parties in implementing preliminary agreements. Meanwhile, we have had interventions from friendly countries with an intermediate agreement known as the “Brussels Constitutional Agreement” or the “Ohrid Agreement”, which includes other preliminary agreements.

You mean the Association of Serb-run municipalities?

Bislimi: No, it's about an agreement that contains within 39 other agreements and not the Association Agreement. This is Serbia's Narrativa, which will reduce the Basic Agreement to a reconfirmation of Association, but this agreement has 11 articles and in no one article specifically mentions Association but mentions the obligation of the parties to implement preliminary agreements. Meanwhile, it is the joint agreement of Kosovo and the European Union that despite the fact that most of the agreements agreed on in Brussels have demanded action on the part of Kosovo, not Serbia's, yet Serbia's list of non-fulfillment of obligations is twice that of Kosovo. So there are many agreements Serbia must implement.

Like closing down parallel structures, or blocking Kosovo into international institutions, the Cadastra issue, integrated border management, energy and many other agreements that have been blocked because Serbia has not respected those agreements. And all of this needs to be worked on within the basic agreement where one of them is the 2013 agreement and Principe of 2015, but it's not the main part of the deal.

But despite how much damage this agreement has done to Kosovo's image, don't you think some solution, compromise, is needed? The prime minister himself has shown flexibility in this matter but you have shown more reserved to compromise in this regard. Why?

Bislimi: Much of the confusion that has been created around the Association of Serb majority municipalities stems from ignorance of the details. There is very little knowledge about what this agreement contains. Here, then, effects on Kosovo's image are born. For your knowledge, in the 2013 deal it was agreed that Kosovo would establish a working group that was tasked with presenting a draft state for the Association of Serb-run municipalities. On this team, there had to be four members, all members of the Serb community who in close co-operation with the Ministry of Local Power present their findings for the draft association status in Brussels. This happened in 2013, and to your knowledge this team, which has been fully controlled by Belgrade, has never proposed a draft status until 2024. So how can Kosovo be blamed for a process that is stuck at some point, full responsibility for preparing the document that should enter the next phase, which has been cancelled by members of the Serb community.

What, then, do you offer, since this corrosion is to be overcome?

Bislimi: Kosovo has never had an agreement on association with Serbia. There has been an agreement on normalising reports, which has been a kind of transaction agreement: Serbia has asked for something, Kosovo has asked for something. In this agreement Serbia has asked: Association. It has requested a guarantee of the Kosovo government that the military will not go to the border in the north without agreement with KFOR. And it has asked the European Union to open membership negotiations. Three are Kosovo's core requirements under this agreement. Prime Minister Thaci's letter to the NATO chief, when confirming his willingness not to send the army to the northern areas with no agreement on KFOR has been sent before signing the agreement. So part of Serbia's demands has realised without signing the agreement.

A few weeks after signing the agreement, the EU has opened the negotiations. Let's say that Serbia has received 2/3 of the product it ordered within this agreement in the first five weeks. Kosovo has had only two requirements: the first requirement has been not to be blocked in European integration processes, and the second one for Serbia to close parallel structures. Has Kosovo received any part of the product ordered? Serbia has continued with blockades and campaigns for Kosovo's recognition even after the signing of the Basic Agreement has voted against Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe, and not only has it closed the parallel structures but it has opened new ones. What I don't understand is how the European Union has never pressured Serbia to hand over at least 1/10 of the product it has agreed to in Brussels' agreement but insists that Serbia get the third share of the product ordered while Kosovo doesn't get anything in return.

What steps will you take in order for the European Union to better understand your position?

Bislimi: There is no doubt about whether the EU has been biased in this process. No one opposes that. The EU has been fair in this process and there has been clear preference for Serbia's accommodation of Serbia's requirements because they have believed reaching a normalisation agreement is whether it meets the strongest party's requirements in dialogue. Serbia is considered the strongest subject in the dialogue because it has a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, has candidate status and is therefore in a more privileged position in the process and the table has not been equal. To equalize the table, Serbia must be compensated and all pressure has been on Kosovo's side. We have been extremely hoping that with new changes in the key positions of the European Union will change this gear and we will settle at an equal level.

We never hesitate to inform the European Union of what we agreed on and how this agreement applies. We do not hesitate to show what we have done for the integration of minorities, including the integration of the Serb minority and we do not hesitate to show the EU that there is no minority in the EU that has the most powerful instruments for protecting minority rights than Kosovo.

But to show how efficient these measures are, we have also had to show the countervalues -- what are the rights of Albanians in the Presevo Valley, where we saw that no Albanian police were hired last week. Brussels is still receiving whether the quota of Serbian police officers within Kosovo police facilities has been met, but has not yet been worried about how no Albanian police officer has been employed in the Presevo Valley, where over 90% of the population is Albanian. We think that citizens have the right to enjoy the same privileges, regardless of their ethnicity and no matter what territory they are in.

Kosovo's incumbent Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, at the same time chief negotiator for dialogue with Serbia, participated in the “more Europe panel for a stronger Europe? / DW