Diplomatic pressure to join the EU and impose sanctions on Russia because of the crisis in the Crimea is expected on the future prime minister of Serbia in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
The twenty-third round of talks on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina will be held in Brussels today, the first after the Serbian elections. Aleksandar Vucic and Ivica Dacic are going to EU headquarters to meet with Catherine Ashton and Hashim Thaci, but now in somewhat different roles. Vucic as the prime minister of Serbia’s new government, and Dacic as the outgoing Prime Minister.
Because of a new balance of political forces in Serbia, speculations have emerged that the Serbian delegation today will be “under attack”. Tanjug, citing informed sources, who claim that Western countries want Serbia to join the EU and impose sanctions on Russia because of the crisis in the Crimea, said that the peak of that diplomatic pressure will be on 31 March, when Vucic and Dacic will meet the EU High Representative.
So far, the exact topics of discussion are unknown, as the office of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, only announced that the implementation of the Brussels Treaty will be discussed at this meeting.
Sources, however, argue that the new round of negotiations in Brussels, in fact, will continue talks on outstanding issues relating to the judiciary and the establishment of the community of Serbian municipalities. But one should not, as assessed, expect significant problems to be solved, as the government in Belgrade is in the technical mandate, and parliamentary elections will be held in Kosovo soon.
Driton Lajci, spokesperson and advisor of Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Hajredin Kuqi, said that the functioning of the courts in northern Kosovo is the only topic of today’s dialogue, and if Belgrade sent a request to discuss the law on the general elections it will be included in the agenda of the meeting.
“For us, the issue of the functioning of the courts in the north is a priority, and, as far as the electoral law, I do not see why we’d discussed it because, first, the date of the elections is not yet known, and second, this issue does not involve Pristina, because it is a matter for the Assembly. However, if Belgrade sent a formal request or a suggestion in connection with it, we will accept it,” Lajci told Politika.
The previous round of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina was held on 12 February. After that meeting, which Vucic also attended, Ashton said that a comprehensive discussion took place on all of the key issues relating to the judiciary and that talks on the subject would resume. “All the relevant elements are now being developed and will be part of the package that the two prime ministers will finalize at the next meeting,” she said, adding that at the next meeting (today), the agreement on the judiciary will be finalized. Then Prime Minister Dacic explained that they had agreed on a court in Mitrovica that would have seven municipalities under its jurisdiction, but whose composition court must be in accordance with the ethnic structure of society.
Asked whether Pristina remains firm that the Basic Court in Mitrovica North shall include municipalities south and north of the Ibar River (unlike the Serbian side that suggests two courthouses in the north, which will take into account the ethnic principle, and the other in the south), Lajci replied that Thaci and Dacic’s views in the previous round of the dialogue were somewhat harmonious. “What we seek remains the same and it is that Pristina will not change its view that municipalities in the north and south should be under the Basic Court in Mitrovica. The creation of a separate legal system only for the north would be contrary to the Constitution and laws,” he said, and opines that the courts cannot be based on ethnicity, but geographically, and any deviation from this would violate the principle of the unitary system of the judiciary in Kosovo.
Political analyst Dusan Janjic said that today, in addition to problems related to the statute of the CSM and the jurisdiction of the court in Mitrovica, Belgrade will insist that EULEX be a topic. On the other hand, recall that shortly after the round of talks in February, the Government of Serbia sent a request on 6 March for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council regarding the announcement of the establishment of the Kosovo Army, for which Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga said it would be called the Armed Forces of Kosovo.
Minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija, Aleksandar Vulin, said that the formation of these forces contradicts resolution 1244, which explicitly states that KFOR troops can only exist in Mitrovica North. Vulin said that Serbia has strong guarantees that the Kosovo Security Force, as well as other members of the armed forces, whatever they may be called, cannot enter northern Kosovo, adding that it is arranged by the Brussels agreement and that security status in the north was guaranteed by NATO and the European Union.
