Pristina on Monday changed the Stabilization and Association Agreement it signed with the EU.
Pristina has signed the SAA agreement as Kosovo* – but the yesterday session of the Assembly, that ratified the agreement, also passed an amendment that replaced the asterisk – which in official documents points to a footnote referring to Kosovo’s status – with the term “the Republic of Kosovo.”
Jasmina Zivkovic, the Deputy Kosovo Assembly Speaker from the Serbian List, told the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti that the text of the agreement with the EU “cannot be changed in this way” and the controversial remake of the law, now “practically is” uncertain.
“This amendment cannot become a part of the agreement, and we have voted in favour of the text that was signed with the EU, without this addition. Article 5 of the agreement states that Pristina is under obligation to implement all agreements from the dialogue with Belgrade, which is of key importance to us. Should the agreements be obstructed, the SAA could be suspended,” she said.
Deputies from the Serbian List have abstained from voting on the amendment, which was eventually passed.
The SAA was ratified with 86 votes in favour. Head of the Serbian List group in the Kosovo parliament, Slavko Simic said they have supported it “because it will enable stronger economic ties with the EU.”
Meanwhile, Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija and the Director Marko Djuric said that Article 2 of the SAA “explicitly states that EU member-states do not recognize the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo with this document.”
“None of the terms, wording or definitions from the agreement (SAA) constitute recognition of Kosovo by the EU as an independent state,” Djuric quoted the article.
