The Belgrade-Pristina dialogue resumed in Brussels on February 9, having been interrupted almost for a year because of numerous elections in Serbia, Kosovo and the EU respectively. Despite the turbulent atmosphere created in the past months, political analyst Dušan Janjić tells our radio that he does not expect any spectacular results or big changes. More by Andjelka Marisavljevic.
In further dialogue, we will envisage what has been done so far and the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities will be the main topic. At the technical level, telecommunications and railways will be discussed, says Dušan Janjić for our radio, explaining that the Trepča combine ownership issue will also be on the agenda, but will not be discussed without thorough preparation. There are many different interests regarding this case – it is not just the rich mines that are at issue, but also the fact that the enterprise had been plundered for years and had been driven to bankruptcy, he says.
The Kosovo Albanian side will be led in the talks by Kosovo PM Isa Mustafa, who, according to Janjic, is very experienced and will represent a bigger challenge for the Serbian team than his predecessor, Hashim Tachi. Serbian PM Aleksandar Vučić has taken part in the talks before and his biggest problem may be the fact that is leading a single-party team, says Janjić, adding that, however, that may also represent an advantage in the implementation of what has been agreed upon as PM Vučić has big support in the Serbian Parliament. The Kosovo Albanians have not changed their team a lot – even the representatives of the ruling LDK party have participated in the talks before. A true challenge will be the promotion of the new mediator, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, who has not faced the Kosovo issue before, says Janjić. However, her team includes an experienced official, Fernando Gentilini – EU special representative in Kosovo.
Dušan Janjić believed that 2015 will be a very difficult year for Europe, in economic and social terms, so that will represent an aggravating circumstance in Belgrade-Pristina talks. The negotiating positions will often be built outside Brussels as well, which is why it is very important to keep the public informed, he says. Belgrade and Priština have different approaches to public information. The Priština team is much more open – they present the results to their Assembly and have their most experienced journalists to inform the public. Belgrade has so far complied with the EU instructions that the talks should be non-transparent, so very often we were informed in Priština bout the results of the talks. I hope PM Aleksandar Vučić will change such practice as it is very important to prepare the public when it comes to the implementation of agreements, analyst Dušan Janjić tells our radio.
