The Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, met today in Belgrade with the head of the Serb Civic Initiative (SDP) Oliver Ivanovic, to discuss the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities, political situation in Kosovo, the future of Brussels dialogue and the procedure against Ivanovic initiated by Kosovo authorities during 2016.
Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) think tank presented today findings of a poll carried out between 3 and 21 March and involving 1,065 rerspondents on the topic of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. According to the poll, 58 percent of respondents said they do not believe courts in the north would be integrated into the Kosovo judicial system as agreed in Brussels while 48 percent believe that Serb parallel structures are still active in the north.
Representatives of the Albanian political parties at coalition government and those of the opposition parties, met on Friday afternoon. Media were not allowed at the meeting where deputy leaders of the political parties reportedly discussed the current political issues.
Kosovo Assembly MP from Vetevendosje movement, Rexhep Selimi, said that demarcation of the border with Montenegro and Association of the Serb-majority Municipalities would not pass at the Assembly despite the return of the Serbian List at the Assembly. “The government by all means needs return of the Serbian List at the Assembly in order to fight Vetevendosje’s and opposition’s cause,” Selimi said. However, he added, “we are determined to stop the Association and demarcation even if they invite a Russian list.”
Kosovo Assembly MP from the Serbian List, Nenad Rasic said since PDK and LDK did not respect the agreement, the best thing would have been to bring down the government. “Perhaps this was our greatest defeat, because we did not manage to implement this policy in the field. We are now dealing with utopic politics, because we are not producing anything good for the citizens, and if we do it, that is too little and it only brings concern and major dissatisfaction,” Rasic said.
President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, said today at an open debate with representatives of Serbian media and civil society, at the Medeia Center based in Caglavica,, that the creation of a Kosovo army is legal and fully in line with the Constitution of Kosovo. He said he expects NATO to continue supporting the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) as it did since its establishment. “Transformation will be done by preserving partnership with our allies. We will have both the army and partners,” Thaci said.
Dalibor Jevtic, Minister for Returns and Communities in the Kosovo Government, said today that Kosovo Serbs do not support the idea of forming the Army of Kosovo, “because this was never part of the coalition agreement between the PDK, LDK and the Serbian List”. Jevtic argued that the funds that would be used for the army should be used for opening a factory. He did not say when the Serbian List could return to the Kosovo institutions and also called for the immediate formation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities.
Leaders of the Serbian List do not consider their participation at the Assembly session on demarcation of the border with Montenegro necessary. They claim that if there is a consensus among the Albanian political parties, endorsement of this agreement would not depend on the votes of Serb MPs.
“The demarcation issue is complex and consensus has not been reached yet among the two major Albanian parties, PDK and LDK, so Kosovo’s direction for the future is under a question mark,” said Slavko Simic, from the Serbian List.
The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Kosovo, Ruairi O’Connell, considers that Kosovo and Serbia should continue with the dialogue mediated by the European Union. In an interview for Radio Kosova, O’Connell said that he does not believe the recently increased tensions between Kosovo and Serbia could lead to a new conflict. “I am very pleased that the Presidents and the Prime Ministers, as far as I know, agreed to lower tensions and this is very important,” O’Connell said.
The dialogue with Pristina will definitely be the biggest challenge for Belgrade in 2017, FM Ivica Dacic said Thursday, noting the significance of maintaining the dialogue and implementing all agreements.
This primarily applies to establishing the Community of Serb Municipalities, Dacic told Radio Belgrade 1 in an interview, adding that Serbia would never have signed the Brussels Agreement without the pledge regarding the establishment of the Community.