Publicist Veton Surroi in an opinion piece writes that the recently-agreed Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities is expected to serve as a mediatory communication body between the Kosovo central government and the local governments of the Serb majority municipalities and, at the same time, a communication channel between the Kosovo Serbs and the Serbian government. However, the legal entity on which the Kosovo and Serbia governments agreed to in Brussels is of course no non-governmental organization, adds Surroi. It is difficult to imagine how an NGO, like for instance the Kosovo-based “FOL”, would have the rights that the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities has been granted. The legal entity on which the two governments agreed to is a territorial autonomy for the Kosovo Serbs, claims Surroi. Authorities of the Association/Community will define their own economic development, spatial planning, education, healthcare and protect what they consider to be the Serb interests. When they identify a potential breach of their interests, the Association/Community authorities will be able to block the execution of decisions within their territory, ask for the change of those decisions at the central level, or dispute them as high up as the Constitutional Court. Surroi writes that Kosovo representatives tried to sell the agreement as a success with some of them reemphasizing that the Association/Community will have no executive competencies or that by signing the agreement Serbia has recognised Kosovo. But beyond these statements, the Kosovo leaders are largely hiding behind poor translations or intentional ambiguous terminology of the document that establishes the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities. As an example, Surroi refers to the competencies of the Association/Community which speak about exercise of full overview on a number of fields. In the Albanian translation the term “overview” has been translated more as “observation” which, Surroi points out, is not what the Association/Community will do.
Autonomy which is not “FOL” (Koha Ditore)
- Published: 9 years ago on 27/08/2015
- By: OSPI-rq
- Last Modified: August 27, 2015 @ 1:41 pm
- Filed Under: Opinions
- Tagged With: Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, Koha Ditore
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