Although the Government of Serbia has announced the last week’s joint emergency meeting of all 10 Serbian municipalities in Kosovo’s local government system as ”the start of the creation of political unity and institutions in Kosovo and Metohija, whose formalization will be considered later”, the Serbian mayors now are announcing that “the initiative for the establishment of Community of Serbian municipalities (ZSO) is raised to a higher political level.”
– The negotiating table in Brussels is a senior political level, where Belgrade and Pristina should agree on Community/Association of Serbian municipalities. The meeting in Gracanica had a consultative and not constitutive character – explains Goran Rakic to Danas, Mayor of North Mitrovica.
He says that at last week’s meeting in Gracanica the period was not specified, within which a draft of the ZSO statute would be presented to counsellors, which was one of the requirements of this meeting. According to Rakic’s words, “this document, for whose writing is authorized only the management team, appointed by the Government of Serbia, first has to agree with Pristina.”
– Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels have to present and coordinate their plans and to agree, and then councillors of 10 majority Serbian municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija to give their suggestions. The executive powers of the ZSO are the problem, with which Pristina disagrees – says Rakic.
His colleague from Gracanica, Vladeta Kostic told RTK2 that “in the formal legal sense, the process of creating the ZSO has not yet started, because the legal requirements are not met, nor the statute of the Community”. Regarding the request of the meeting in Gracanica, which requires the submission of the ZSO draft statute, Kostic mentions “multiple versions in circulation.”
Danas was unofficially told in the Government of Serbia that about draft statute can speak only President of the Management Team for the establishment of the ZSO, Ljubomir Maric, who is the current Minister for Local Self-Government of Kosovo. Maric was present at last week’s meeting in Gracanica, but for days he does not answer phone calls.
Dusan Janjic, political analyst, explains that four Serbian municipalities in northern Kosovo, through the Management team, are making the statute with the help of Belgrade and that it should be presented to the Ministry of Local Government”. It is upon the Government of Kosovo, says Janjic, to prepare a law on the ZSO and to be adopted by the Kosovo parliament.
– A higher instance is just a Brussels-based dialogue and EU High Representative Federica Mogherini. In Belgrade, no one has presented a draft statute of the ZSO, although it can happen at the next meeting of the two prime ministers in Brussels. The deal will end up by signing a technical agreement on the ZSO and shutting down the remaining “parallel” institutions. For Belgrade, it would be better if President of Serbia before it, presents his announced platform for Kosovo, which he has adjusted to the Brussels agreement, based on which the Government of Serbia will make a resolution which will go to the Assembly. This resolution should include the statute of the ZSO, while and the Serbs from KiM will declare on the statute – explains Janjic.
