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The new round of dialogue in Brussels for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue ends without results

2023-05-16 10:44:35Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The new round of dialogue in Brussels for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue ends
Besnik Bislimi, Miroslav Lajcak, and Serbia's chief negotiator, Petar Petkovic

In Brussels, a new round of dialogue was held between the chief negotiator of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, and that of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, under the mediation of the European Union.

The meeting did not produce any results, although according to the participants, a number of topics were discussed.

This round of talks focused on the implementation of the Agreement on the path towards the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and its Annex.

Kosovo's chief negotiator, Besnik Bislimi, said that at the May 15 meeting, they discussed how the parties see the direction in which the dialogue process is going. He said that "everything related to the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement" was on the agenda of the talks.

Bislimi confirmed that during last week's visit, the EU envoy, Miroslav Lajçak, sent to Pristina and Belgrade several documents related to the competences of the mechanism for the implementation of the agreement, with the implementation of the Declaration on the Disappeared, as and for his approach on how to proceed with the implementation of point seven of the agreement, which deals with the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority.

"In the agreement we reached in Ohrid, it is clearly stated that none of the articles can condition other articles and that all articles will be implemented independently. Also, it is said that neither party will block the implementation of any specific article. This is the guide for us. I don't believe that the EU is willing to let go of a document that they brought and published on their website", said Bislimi at the end of the meeting.

So far there are no warnings about what the next steps will be and when Bislimi and Petkovic will meet again.

Meanwhile, the chief negotiator of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, has confirmed that the Serbian side has insisted on the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo, but that, according to him, it is not easy to talk with Pristina.

"When we had to talk about important issues, such as the further implementation of the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, the issue of missing persons, namely what and how to do next after the Declaration on Missing Persons, but also about other important ones, such as freedom of movement, for issues related to the very lives of Serbs in Kosovo, the institutional violence of [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti, which happens to Serbs every day, the attacks of the Kosovo Police , shooting at Serbs... for these, Bislimi did not want to give any concrete answers. All the time, with various interventions, he tried to make the flow of the dialogue meaningless," Petkovic told reporters.

Meanwhile, after the meeting, Lajçak wrote on Twitter that he discussed with the parties the way forward towards the implementation of the Agreement towards the normalization of relations. According to him, the May 15 meeting aimed to "clarify open issues".

"Discussions will continue", he emphasized.

Before the tripartite meeting, Lajcak held separate meetings with Bislim and Petkovic.

This was the first meeting of the chief negotiators after the high-level meeting between the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, on May 2 in Brussels. In that meeting, the political leaders agreed on the joint declaration for the missing from the last war in Kosovo, and there the Management Team presented the first draft of the statute for the Association of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo.

The EU envoy, Miroslav Lajçak, on the eve of the meeting in Brussels, had written on social networks that a complete focus on the normalization of relations and the implementation of the Agreement towards normalization is necessary.

Kosovo and Serbia on February 27 in Brussels reached the Agreement towards the normalization of relations, while on March 18 in Ohrid they agreed on the Annex for its implementation.

Lajcak prepared Monday's meeting through visits last week to Kosovo and Serbia.

Speaking about the meetings in Pristina and Belgrade, including with Kosovar Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian President Vučić, Lajçak said that he conveyed to the leaders the expectation of focusing on the normalization of relations and the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement.

"I also underlined the importance of avoiding any uncoordinated movement that could damage the process", wrote Lajçak. Meanwhile, referring to the visit he made to the north of Kosovo, where he talked about the current situation, he remarked that "what I heard, worried me".

"Therefore, I reiterated the need to avoid any possibility of escalation and focus fully on normalization," he wrote.

The senior European official has also expressed that he expects Bislimi and Petkovic to be ready to agree on concrete steps in the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement. The EU expects that after Monday's meeting there will also be meetings of working groups and experts, but also of the joint commission for monitoring the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement.

The parties have already expressed different positions regarding the priorities regarding the implementation of the points of the Agreement towards normalization and its Annex.

The Kosovar executive insists that all points of the agreement must be implemented, but Belgrade insists that the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority be established first.

Even the EU, according to a senior official, is of the opinion that the establishment of the Association is the main issue that will decide the fate of the whole process and this issue is considered as the main priority, even though according to the Annex of the agreement, all points must formally have the same importance.

The first draft of the statute for the establishment of the Association, which was presented in Brussels on May 2, was immediately rejected by the Government of Kosovo, and this rejection was expected by the EU.

Prime Minister Kurti presented his vision for the self-management of the Serbian community in Kosovo, which he said was inspired by Croatia's agreement with Serbia.

The Government of Kosovo insists on the Croatian model for the Association

The Government of Kosovo has dismissed the Management Team that drafted the statute for the Association, on the grounds that this team has completed its mandate with the presentation of the draft. However, this action of the Kosovar executive in the EU is considered to be contrary to the dialogue agreement. The European bloc has expressed the position that this team - consisting of four Serbian members - should be functional until the approval of the Association's statute.

Kosovo and Serbia have reached two agreements on the Association, in 2013 and 2015. However, the Agreement on the principles for the establishment of the Association, according to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, is not in full harmony with the highest legal act of the state. However, the Constitutionalist has said that it can be harmonized with legal acts./REL


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