New round of Brussels talks between Belgrade and Pristina on normalization of relations, which is announced for Monday, will manly focus on continuation of dialogue on open issues such as judiciary and creation of the community of Serbian municipalities (CSM), comment political experts.
They say that one should not expect major issues to be addressed at the upcoming meeting between prime ministers Ivica Dačić and Hashim Thaçi, which will be attended and by First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, bearing in mind that the government in Belgrade is in technical mandate and that general elections are due to take place in Kosovo in next few months.
Henri Bone, Director of the Office of the Foundation Konrad Adenauer (KAS) in Serbia, said to Danas, that following a longer pause in dialogue, first thing to be addressed should be implementation of the reached agreements from last year and whether its continuation will follow. “Mayor question should be integration of the judiciary, since there is still a range of open issues with regards to integration of Serbian judges and courts in the Kosovo system. Along with the location where judges and courts will be set, clear definition of tasks and duties should also be determined. Following several months of silence between Belgrade and Pristina, reaching of positive progress would present a positive signal, along with the presence of the future prime minister. Normalization of relations is still at the beginning and presents one of the most challenging tasks for the future government in Belgrade,” claims Bone.
Dušan Janjić, political analyst and President of Active Serbia said to Danas that beside problems in regard to the statute of the CSM and jurisdiction of the court in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Eulex will be imposed as a topic, particularly due to Belgrade’s insistence. “I don’t expect anything to be settled, since there is technical government in Belgrade, while Pristina is heading toward elections. Announced presence of the First Deputy Prime Minister and future Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić at the meeting in Brussels is important, since Catherine Ashton wants to hear his stance with regards to continuation of dialogue and convince him to use his authority to influence Serbs in four municipalities in northern Kosovo to accept the statute of the CSM,” said Janjić.
Selatin Klokoçi, analyst in Pristina based institute D4D comments that new topics should not be expected to open on Monday in Brussels, whereas discussions will be focused on implementation of the so far reached agreements. He claims that there won’t be considerable shifts in next rounds of dialogue.
“After Vučić becomes the Prime Minister I think there won’t be major shifts in Belgrade’s stance with regards to Brussels dialogue and Pristina, since even in the past when Prime Minister Dačić was at the helm of Serbian delegation, Vučić was considered to be the man from the shadow without whom not a single decision could be made. We will have elections here in Kosovo soon and it is still not clear how the government will look like, however stance of Prisitna toward the dialogue won’t be significantly shifted no matter who becomes the new prime minister of Kosovo,” claims Klokoçi. He concluded that no matter on composition of the future Serbian and Kosovo governments and rhetoric that would be heard in Belgrade and Pristina over Brussels agreement, the path taken has to be continued, not only for the sake of European integrations but for the wellbeing of peoples of Kosovo and Serbia.
