Whether will the existing laws of Kosovo be the base for the establishment of Community of Serbian municipalities, which would then lead to the level of non-governmental organizations, or Pristina will adjust the regulations so that the ZSO belong the jurisdiction agreed in Brussels – this is the main point of contention between Belgrade and Pristina, which hinders its formation.
According to our information, the position of Pristina is that the ZSO should be created by the current law and is supported by several powerful European states, which means that this community would not have been different from the existing Association of Kosovo Municipalities, defined as a “a non-profit organization” in its Statute.
On the other hand, Belgrade defends its position by insisting, at the time of signing the Brussels Treaty, to remove the word “existing” from the formulation – “the ZSO will be based on the existing laws”. Also, the first point of the Plan of implementation of the Brussels agreement states the obligation of adaptation of the legal framework for the ZSO.
These differences will probably have to be overcome at the Brussels table; a new round of dialogue is expected in less than a month.
The Serbian side has already announced that it wants the ZSO to be a central theme of the meeting and will not give up from it.
Dusan Janjic, political analyst, told Novosti, that the Albanian side uses vagueness of the Brussels Treaty:
– There is only stated that the Community will be “in accordance with the laws of Kosovo,” but not which, and that was a failure of Serbian negotiators, they have not asked for more precise guidelines before they have put initials. Now this strengthens the position of Pristina.
But, if the agreement is reached on the competencies of the ZSO, Janjic believes that laws definitely should change, because under the existing Kosovo legislation there is no functional autonomy:
– Negotiations on the ZSO will certainly last long, since Belgrade would agree to dissolve the remnants of “parallel” institutions only after it sees that health and education have become part of this community.
Otherwise, the jurisdictions of the ZSO that have been mentioned as agreed in Brussels are: urban planning, education, health and economic development. In the Community/Association should enter four municipalities in the north and six south of the Ibar with Serbian majority, and the plan was to establish two more municipalities – Gora and Priluzje.
Mustafa with Serbian ministers
The Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa has announced that during weekend he will meet with Deputy Prime Minister, Branimir Stojanovic, Local Government Minister Ljubomir Maric and leader of the Srpska list Aleksandar Jablanovic, to find a solution to keep this list in the institutions of Kosovo.
