Koha Ditore’s Brussels based correspondent, Augustin Palokaj, writes that many officials in Brussels and other capitals make many statements and praise results reached by the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. “One gets the impression that this dialogue not only resolved the vital issues for the people of Kosovo, but it also saved the world from the third world war. The bitter truth stands in the fact that this dialogue has resolved a few problems, however it caused more obscurity and illusions,” writes Palokaj. According to him there are not many facts in the field that would prove some dramatic change, and even when there are changes, they are not necessarily positive. He further mentions lack of the freedom of movement in the north, saying that except for some deputy at the EU Parliament, one cannot find a single official in Brussels that would state that the “Peace Park” should be removed.
He remarks that integration of Serbs in Kosovo system, appears as a success in the first sight, while their participation in elections was sold out as a success. However, the truth is that this has disintegrated Kosovo Serbs further. Those Serbs who were gradually integrating in Kosovo institutions, and who represented the majority of Serbs, excluding those in the north, are the biggest losers of this process. They lost the elections and regretted because neither Pristina nor the international community helped them. Both these parties preferred to work and cooperate with Serbs nominated and supported by Belgrade. This made Mustafa’s Government appear as a confederation, where he cannot influence at least the two major parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Serbian List. The Ministers of the first one do not make any decision without the consent of their party, and the second ones, without Belgrade’s consent.
Another “success” mentioned in Brussels, is dissolution of the parallel structures, however, they have only became legal, just as Serbia’s presence in Kosovo, writes Palokaj, mentioning the recent visit of the Prime Minister of Serbia in Kosovo. “He visited Kosovo as if it was Sumadia, or some other part of Serbia. He did not meet Kosovo officials and there were no Kosovo flags there, only plenty of Serbian flags… While in Brussels, Deputy Urlicke Lunacek, was the only one to criticize this visit and claim that Vucic should have met with his counterpart in Kosovo. However, to Vucic, Mustafa and Thaci are only “authorities in Pristina.”
There were also claims that with dialogue, Kosovo has benefited on European integrations. “Kosovo has not gained a single thing ever since the dialogue started. It has not signed the Stabilization Association Agreement yet, it will not gain the status of the candidate for a long time, while no one knows if and when would visa liberalization occur,” writes Palokaj, adding that Serbia has reached all the above, not moving a millimeter from its initial position that Kosovo is part of Serbia. Furthermore, officials in Brussels consider that it is a positive sign that some EU countries have not recognized Kosovo, because this enables EU to be presented as “neutral to the status.”
Palokaj considers that little has been achieved on relaxation of the relations between Albanians and Serbs too. “Recent statement of Minister Jablanovic and reactions of Albanians, prove this. Trepca case also proves how far the positions of Belgrade and Pristina are and how little the EU is interested to help on resolving the issue. “It is not the first time that Kosovo senior officials claim that they would never accept to discuss some internal issue of Kosovo with Serbia, in Brussels, however the opposite always happened. They claimed that they would not allow discussions of internal issues with Serbia, that they would not discuss the north of Kosovo with Serbia, however, they did not discuss about Kraljevo or Kragujevac there, they only discussed about Mitrovica, Zubin Potok and even other municipalities of Kosovo. Belgrade even played a role on the date of the elections in Kosovo, if Kosovo Serbs would participate, how will the Government form, which from Kosovo political parties are acceptable for them and which are not. Brussels remained silent and it was heard only if they considered that some process would harm the dialogue. The problem stands in the fact that Brussels sees all developments in Kosovo in service of the dialogue and it does not see dialogue in service of solutions,” writes Palokaj.
