At the latest Belgrade-Pristina talks in Brussels, Kosovo agreed not to unilaterally privatize companies in the mainly Serbian north without seeking the consent of the community.
Aleksandar Vucic and Isa Mustafa, the Serbian and Kosovo Prime Ministers, met on Tuesday in Brussels for another round of EU-mediated talks and agreed to halt fresh privatisations of companies in the Serb-run north of Kosovo.
“We agreed to stop privatization of companies in north Kosovo, in a course of talks on return of Serb deputies in Kosovo parliament,” said Serbian Prime Minister after the meeting.
Mustafa said representatives of the Kosovo Serb communitity would in future be included in any such privatization processes.
“That is their wish and that should be enabled with full respect for the laws of Kosovo,” he said.
The issue of the privatization of companies in northern Kosovo came into the spotlight in January, when Kosovo’s parliament tried to adopt a law on privatising the Trepca mine. Belgrade opposed the law and Serbian deputies withdrew from the Kosovo parliament, in a sign of protest.
Vucic and Mustafa also discussed energy, telecommunications and implementation of an earlier deal on the judiciary and the civil protection force.
No new arrangements were signed but the two leaders did agree to open two new border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia, and halt fresh privatisations of companies in the Serb-run north of Kosovo.
The two sides in Brussels failed to make progress on establishing an Association of Serbian Municipalities – one of the key steps in the further normalization of relations agreed within the framework of the Brussels agreement of April 2013.
The signing of Brussels agreement was a precondition for the start of Serbia’s accession talks with the EU.
Some observers in Kosovo say overall progress in the process of implementing the Brussels deal has been negligible.
“It’s fair to say that the dialogue has failed,” Dren Doli, head of the Group for Legal and Political Studies, told BIRN.
“Two years on, we have a lack of [Kosovo] Serbian participation in institutions, freedom of movement is still a problem and there are still barricades in the north [of Kosovo],” Doli added.
“Kosovo needs to reorganize its relationship with Serbia – to start communicating with the Serbian government directly on issues relating to the Serbs in Kosovo, and not via Brussels,” he concluded.
A new round of talks in Brussels is scheduled for May.
