From the European Union request that before the inter-governmental conference takes place on opening negotiating chapters with Serbia, additional work is invested in the implementation of the Brussels Agreement.
Opening of negotiation chapters with the European Union will most probably be on halt until 2015. Majority member states, with Germany on its helm, as they say in Brussels, request that before the inter-governmental conference on opening negotiation chapters with Serbia takes place additional work is invested in implementation of the Brussels Agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, which was initialed last April.
Sources from the EU keep reminding that “agreement on recognition of diplomas, which was reached a long time ago, is still not fully implemented, whereas two sides still didn’t harmonize stances with regard to judiciary, energy and telecommunication”.
Even though a “theoretical possibility” is not excluded for inter-governmental conference to take place at the meeting of the Council of the European Union on October 24 in Luxembourg, by which, expectations of the official Belgrade would be fulfilled, although such possibility is assessed as “minimal”. It is not impossible that such assessment is based on information, carried local media, that official Rome, which is presiding over the EU until the end of the year, amongst the others, is very prone to Euro-integrations of Serbia, is investing huge efforts in order that German Bundestag doesn’t resort to a precedent and shift the next inter-governmental conference between Serbia and the EU for the following spring.
According to political analyst Dusan Janjic “all in Brussels are aware that it is realistic to happen in the second half of the next year”. “There is no dilemma that the start will be marked by opening the chapter containing Kosovo issue in it, and not the chapter 32 on financial control, or chapters 23 and 24 on judiciary and human rights, justice, freedom and security.”
“Inter-governmental conference will take place at the moment when assessed that they can start with the chapter 35,” stressed Janjic and added that there is ‘a political deal” that inter-governmental conference will take place when that chapter is defined, for which “the Brussels Agreement is very important”.
Taking into account that dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina is at stalemate, due to the fact that new Kosovo government is still not formed, the question arises whether Belgrade, whose officials claim that they are ready for continuation of dialogue, can do anything more in implementing the Agreement on normalization of relations?
Janjic said that Serbia should not worry that much over the sole implementation of the agreement with Pristina, because everyone knows that five to ten years are needed for implementation of what is written in the Brussels Agreement, instead it should care about better quality of the rest of topics and organize its bodies dealing with Kosovo and connect them with bodies dealing with Serbia’s integration into the EU.
“Serbia will have two more months until Kosovo government is consolidated. Until then, Serbia can settle problems referring to the Park of Peace and to prepare well for talks on jurisdiction of municipalities. Secondly, Serbia should prepare very well for the property issue, along with telecommunication and energy. It is particularly important to prepare a sort of platform too, in order to insist on grater Kosovo’s obligations toward the Serbian Orthodox Church, and to raise a question with regard to human and minority rights of the Serbian community,” said Janjic. In parallel, he stressed, work should be invested also in defining an action plan and negotiating position for chapter 35. “Incumbent team for negotiations is incompetent and Miscevic should receive a serious support and instructions, because that chapter will be more important than anything else,” argues Janjic and remindes that there is a ‘robust mechanism of monitoring and halt of negotiations”.
One should also have in mind the actual differences in Serbian foreign policy when compared to European one, which could also delay opening of certain chapters.In late July, during her visit to Belgrade Italian FM Federica Mogerini voiced expectation that Serbia will manage to open some important chapters in negotiations during Italian presiding over the EU and expressed expectation that Serbia will increase the level of harmonization of its foreign policy with the one of the EU.
To that end, former Serbian ambassador to Germany Ivo Viskovic assessed that it is hard to expect harmonization of Serbia’s foreign policy with the one of the EU in following moths, and that this can be used for delaying opening of negotiation chapters with our country.“What is unfavorable, for sure, is that it is impossible to predict the flow of events in Ukraine. The EU’s behavior will directly depend on it. If the crisis deteriorates, and if they resort to harsher measures, they will most probably try to influence us to joint them, what is impossible for us. Than we would find ourselves in unfavorable position, what can be used by someone to delay opening of certain chapters, eventually,” said Viskovic, who argues that harmonization in the foreign policy, at the moment, won’t be decisive for opening first chapters.
He is also of the opinion that more problems could emerge, with regard to opening chapters, from the Brussels Agreement. “The EU will request from us the unilateral implementation of what was agreed, no matter on the stalemate in the dialogue, which is not feasible at the moment and for what we are not to be blamed in situation when there are no partners on the Kosovo side. We can find ourselves in situation that some would insist on more complete implementation of what was agreed, and what was not implemented yet, whereas Ukraine is in the second plan, depending on how the things will develop there,” concluded Viskovic.
