Kosovo’s Minister for dialogue, Edita Tahiri, assessed on Tuesday that the time has come to change the format of the dialogue with Serbia. She stated that the next phase of the dialogue should be the closing of this process. In an interview for the paper, Tahiri defended the dialogue process held in Brussels, saying that it had brought many benefits to Kosovo. According to her, this process has contributed significantly in fulfilling the strategic objectives of the government, on strengthening the state internally and externally. Speaking about the wall in Mitrovica, Tahiri said that Kosovo institutions are working intensively to remove the wall in a careful manner. “We assure you that there will be no wall and the revitalization of the Ibër Bridge and the promenade will be completely in accordance with the Brussels agreement,” Tahiri said.

Madam Minister, you said the wall near the Ibar Bridge will be removed, but we have not seen anything concrete yet. When can we expect actions to remove the wall?

 The highest state institutions are working to remove the illegal wall in Mitrovica. The wall is outside the Brussels agreement for the revitalisation [of the bridge] and it was built with Serbia’s instructions to destabilise the situation in Kosovo. This goes against the spirit of dialogue for the normalisation of relations between the two countries. The same can be said about the recent illegal visits by some naïve Serbian politicians. All institutions, the government, the opposition and the people, are against this wall and any other wall. Therefore, every wall will be removed with the highest caution and very swiftly. The President, the Prime Minister and the Assembly President have made clear the position of the state: there will be no wall and it will be removed soon.

Some Serbian officials have said that the wall will be redesigned and not removed.

This statement is not true. The situation is serious, this is not the time for words and polemics, but for determined actions for removing the wall and helping stabilise the situation and calming the people who are rightfully distressed.

Officials of the ruling coalition have called on the government to explain if the area where the wall was built was part of the Brussels talks on the revitalisation of the bridge?

The wall was never part of talks or any agreement in Brussels, including the agreement for removing the barricade and revitalising the bridge. Such a question seems absurd, because we shouldn’t be talking about walls in this century of democracy and freedom of movement. We will remove the wall because we are obliged to do so by the Constitution of our democratic state.

For this reason, a protest of KLA veterans was held last week. Do you fear escalation of the situation in that part?

As I said, the situation is tensioned and dissatisfactions of the citizens are rightful and legitimate. However, the government of Kosovo has undertaken legal measures to halt the works since 7 December 2016 and it which happened since the decision of the government of Kosovo respectively the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, which was sent to the local authorities of the municipality. Also, the Ministry is continuously monitoring the situation through its official inspectors. At the same time, the Kosovo Police is fully engaged to keep order, considering the legitimate dissatisfaction of the citizens for the violation of the Brussels agreement and fear from devilish scenarios of Serbia. The government of Kosovo assures the citizens that it is working maximally together with the international partners, the European Union, to resolve this problem. We assure you that there will be no wall and that the process of revitalization of the Ibër Bridge and the promenade will be completely in accordance with the Brussels agreement. We are determined on this matter and we will resolve it, however, we want to stress that we will resolve it most cautiously, considering the sensitivity of this issue, but always in accordance with Kosovo laws.

The Government of Kosovo managed so far to remove all the barricades in the north of the country, over twenty of them. Also, we removed the barricade at the River Ibër Bridge, thanks to the Brussels dialogue and our consequent position in this process. Therefore, we will resolve this problem as well, without walls and without delays.

It is a known fact that Belgrade authorities are behind the wall construction. Do you see this as an opportunity to change the format of dialogue?

No doubt walls and obstructions come from Belgrade, this was evident throughout the Brussels dialogue. I think the time has come to reflect on the change of the dialogue’s format and the next stage will be the final one. But we should not forget that in six years the dialogue has achieved considerable progress. Over thirty agreements reached, majority of which are being implemented. The results of the dialogue are strengthening the country and its sovereignty, are helping the integration of Serbia in the northern part of Kosovo. Before the dialogue the northern part was considered to be a very tense area and there were even different opinion about partition which the dialogue put an end to. The dialogue is also facilitating in Kosovo institutions stretching authority to the northern part and dissolving of parallel structures. The Brussels dialogue has contributed significantly to the achievement of [Kosovo] Government’s strategic objectives for strengthening the country internally and externally. In the internal plan, Kosovo has stretched its sovereignty to the north and has improved the lives of citizens in areas such as the rule of law, social and economic field, political, justice, security, the issuing of state documents, removal of barricades from Mitrovica bridge; it has integrated the Serb community and dissolved parallel structures. Externally, Kosovo has strengthened its international position by furthering Euro-Atlantic agenda with signing of contractual relations with the EU through the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, has joined many regional and international organisations, has established official ties with NATO, the UN telecom organization through the granting of the dialing prefix and has strengthened strategic alliance with the US and European partners.

The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) has requested a parliamentary session to clarify the construction of the wall. Are you ready to report to the Assembly on this issue?

Yes, absolutely. It is a constitutional obligation of the Government and myself as a minister to do so.