Adritaik Kelmendi writes today that creation of big governing coalitions in Kosovo and Serbia, have created the most suitable conditions for the international community to remove the burden of Kosovo-Serbian problem once and for all. He stresses that the international community has already used once the PDK-LDK coalition to make major compromises. Kelmendi also stresses that the coalition in Serbia, led by Aleksandar Vucic, for the first time does not have any party at the Assembly that objects EU membership. This is a chance which Brussels, Washington and Berlin will not lose to end the Western Balkans chapter.
Everything will be reached through the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia and their fulfillment of the conditions to become EU members. According to Kelmendi, only those who have lived in March during the last 15 years are not aware of the intentions of each party. Through dialogue, Albanians want to complete the process of independence and sovereignty, in order to become equal with the other countries of the World. Serbs are aware that they cannot stop this but they try to gain as much autonomy for Serbs in Kosovo as possible. The international community wants to keep the parties interested in the dialogue through the euphemistic syntagma of “normalization of the relations” until the time for the mutual recognition of the two countries comes.
However, stresses Kelmendi, all these well known facts are accompanied by fear that something might go wrong and that Balkans could sink into new problems. Albanians fear that all these concessions with Serbia, especially regarding the competencies of the Association of the municipalities with Serb majority, might turn out to be a Trojan horse. There is fear that if the Association gains executive and political rights, in case of the recognition, they could be a destabilizing factor dictated by Belgrade that could make the state dysfunctional. Albanians fear that Serbs could ruin everything reached so far, they could undermine chances for EU membership, in order to call Kosovo a wishful state, while the Association could separate to join Serbia.
Serbs on the other hand fear that if the dialogue concludes without autonomy for Serbs, Albanians could create a situation for Serbs to leave Kosovo. International community fears some kind of mismanagement of the situation that would waste all their engagement in the region and increase capacity for new conflicts.
Kelmendi further notes that these concerns have been discussed at numerous formal and informal meetings of the representatives of Kosovo and Serbia, including the recent one held in Montenegro where the main concern was creation and competencies of the Association of municipalities with Serb majority. “Despite the drawn red lines, Kosovo and Serbia are two separate countries with many major problems that require solution. The main issue remains how to resolve them. And the answers will have to be given by Mustafa and Thaci on one side and Vucic and Dacic on the other, while many of the citizens will find their solutions to difficult to swallow,” concludes Kelmendi.
