The director of the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić, said that no one should expect Serbia to change its position with regard to the status of its southern province, however he argues that Belgrade and Pristina have considerable room for settling issues of a joint interests and creation of lasting stability in that region.

In an interview for Pristina-based paper Tribuna, Đurić said that if Serbs and Albanians look carefully around themselves they would be able to find more things that they agree about and have joint interest, than things that they have different stands about. He went on to say that Belgrade and Pristina, no matter on disagreements over the status of Kosovo, can talk about certain issues with mutual respect and acceptance of legitimacy of institutions, however way forward to establishing trust goes through implementation of agreements, and Pristina’s unpreparedness to implement agreement on the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities (A/CSM) is not contributing to approximation of Serbs and Albanians.

“I have big respect toward independent institutions, however we didn’t make agreement with the court, but with the government that was elected on elections and which has obligation to implement reached agreements,” said Đurić and added that those agreements are not bad for either side and that one should stop thinking that what is good for Serbs is automatically bad for Albanians, and vice versa. He explained that A/CSM is not a political entity confronted with any group in Kosovo and wonders why certain structures in Pristina are more dealing with this issue instead of dealing with unemployment, fight against corruption and poor economic situation. He also voiced disbelief in spontaneous protests in Pristina and voiced concerns that they are blessed by the ruling structures.

Đurić reflected on the so far flow of the dialogue in Brussels and explained that reached agreements are not papers that should reconcile people, instead leaders are those who should shake hands with each other and show that they are directly establishing the trust.