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Yesterday, the European Union sent a clear message to officials in Kosovo that they are bound to implement the agreement on the Union of Serbian Municipalities, to which they committed “in good faith” in 2013 when signing the Brussels agreement. Therefore, this unfulfilled article, important to the position of the Serbs, was finally returned to the table.
The formation of the JCC is one of the most important obligations, which concerns the position of the Serbs, to which Pristina has committed itself, and Belgrade has been waiting for its fulfillment for seven years. Previous mediators in the dialogue have failed to force officials in Pristina to break the deadlock, but it appears that with the arrival of the EU’s special envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, this issue has refocused. In Brussels, headquarters of the European Union, yesterday the technical dialogue between the two delegations continued, and Belgrade announced before this round that it will insist that the JCC be the first point to be discussed. The day before, Lajcak mentioned the topics she was not included in, but also announced that she would meet in the next few days.
The first topic
– President Vučić and Prime Minister Hoti agreed that their negotiators would continue talks on mutual financial claims and the status of non-majority communities. Both issues are very complex. That is why tomorrow we will discuss financial claims and settlements on non-majority communities in the coming days, Lajcak previously wrote on Twitter.
The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić, replied and wrote that, as far as the Serbian side is concerned, the first topic will be SSO, because it is a topic that was adopted under the auspices of the EU seven Years and a half.
– One possible topic will be property, private, state and church – Đurić wrote.
A clear message
Regardless of whether it will be on the table this week or next, a message was sent yesterday that the JCC formation must take place. EU spokesman Peter Stano said Pristina is obliged to implement the JCC agreement, to which it committed “in good faith” in 2013.
– This obligation arises from the signing of the Brussels Agreement. The Brussels agreement was signed by all participants in the process and is valid. Furthermore, it has been ratified by the Kosovo Parliament. Therefore, Kosovo has assumed the international obligation to implement this agreement. It is up to them to say how they will apply it, ”Stano said.
When asked how he assessed the change in the agenda of today’s expert talks in Brussels, Stano reiterated that at the meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Avdulah Hoti, it was agreed to continue talks on mutual financial claims and the status of non-majority communities.
– These issues are very complex and both parties agreed in the previous days that today’s meeting would be devoted entirely to the issue of financial claims. As a continuation of this meeting, conversations about non-majority communities will continue in the coming days, concluded Stano.
Content before speed
The community of Serbian municipalities is important for Serbia, because it precisely ensures the Serbs there in practice, and the director of the Forum of Ethnic Municipalities, Dušan Janjić, recalls that one of the rare objectives has been verified in our parliament. He also points out that the focus of the EU is back on this issue, and not without reason.
– In the Resolution of the Serbian Assembly, the JCC is the main political objective to be obtained from the negotiations with Kosovo, and the same is stated in the Government’s position, which, however, was not so detailed. Politically, a lot was invested in ZSO, the elections at that time and the slogan of the Serbian list in Kosovo, which referred to ZSO, were forgotten. As for the Pristina obligation, the Brussels Agreement is international, which means that it is stronger than the Constitutional Court and other laws. However, it mattered to the ZSO at the time Thaci started a kind of political game, and criticism that the ZSO cannot have executive power. If we look at it realistically, there is no ZSO. It seems to me that the JCC has been lost as an objective in recent years, because demarcation was offered as a solution in the dialogue, but that now it has refocused and that a kind of harmonization and redefinition of the JCC is underway. We will see in which direction it goes. Lajcak’s terminology “non-majority community” points to such a conclusion, which has not been used at any time so far, and which may or may not refer to the ZSO, Janjic notes.
Artificial deadlines
Suzana Grubjesic from the Center for Foreign Policy also notes that this is an obligation of Pristina, which is guaranteed by the firm.
– It is about non-compliance with obligations derived from the Brussels Agreement in 2013 and 2015, whose guarantor was the EU. ZSO was negotiated, agreed and remains to be formed in accordance with what was signed, and not wait for the final agreement on the comprehensive normalization of relations, says Grubjesic.
He also said that setting artificial deadlines to reach an agreement is counterproductive, adding that no agreement will be reached in the next few weeks or months, as some have announced.
– The content of the agreement is more important than the speed imposed. We are witnessing how many agreements were previously reached without being implemented – said Grubjesic.
Seven years of waiting
The formation of the JCC is foreseen by the first Brussels agreement of 2013, as a result of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. It was signed by the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, and the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, with the mediation of the Head of European Diplomacy, Catherine Ashton. The first six points of the agreement refer to the JCC, and indicate that it is established based on the Statute and that its dissolution can only occur based on a decision of the participating municipalities. The JCC is expected to have a president, vice president, assembly, council, and full oversight of economic development, education, health, urban planning, and rural development. The second agreement of 2015 harmonized 22 points that determine the legal framework, goals, organizational structure, relationship with central authorities and the budget. However, at the request of the then President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo reviewed the JCC and in December 2015 announced that the JCC principles were not harmonized with the Kosovo Constitution, but could be harmonized with a law and a government statute. As has been said, the agreement on the principles of the Community, which does not comply with the Constitution in the areas of “equality before the law, fundamental rights and freedoms, rights of minorities”, is debatable. What can be read in the media is that, in fact, it is debatable that the ZSO is not based on multi-ethnicity, but groups together municipalities in which the majority is an ethnic community, the Serbs.
Selimi: Hoti made Kosovo fall short of Serbia
Kosovo Prime Minister Avdulah Hoti yesterday presented a report on the dialogue with Belgrade in Brussels. The head of the parliamentary group of the Self-Determination Movement, Recep Selimi, criticized yesterday that Hoti, during the recent negotiations in Washington, made Kosovo not equal to Serbia.
“Hoti not only accepted, but also acted in such a way that Kosovo is not equal to Serbia,” said Selimi.
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