Kosovo government’s coordinator for dialogue with Serbia, Avni Arifi, told Radio Free Europe that the Kosovo delegation will present to EU officials results of the dialogue for normalisation of relations with Serbia. “We are ready. We will discuss our efforts but at the same time we will also speak about the obstacles we are facing,” Arifi said. He added that they have no information whether any Serb official will be at the meeting and “for the sake of correct information, we have no meeting scheduled with the Serbian side.”
“We have made two requests in April and May to resume talks with energy featuring as a priority but have not yet received any response. We had an offer to listen to a presentation on how far the work on the drafting of the [Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities] statute has come but we declined because there are other priorities. For us there is no more or less important agreement, all agreements are important,” Arifi said. he noted that an invitation from Brussels for resumption of dialogue would have to cover the issue of implementation of all agreements reached so far. “Otherwise, the invitation would have no meaning,” Arifi underlined.
Agreements that the Kosovo side insist on being implemented before the dialogue resumes include that on energy, reopening of the main Mitrovica bridge, return of cadastral records, recognition of diplomas, and the operationalization of premises rented in the north of Kosovo. Meanwhile, the Serbian side insists on the swift establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.
