Government answers Lajcak’s question to the Association shortly before he arrives in Kosovo

Gazeta Express

13/10/2020 14:02

The Association of Serb Municipalities will not be a topic of discussion in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. This is the stance of the Government of Kosovo a few hours before the European Union special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak arrives in Pristina to convince Kosovo officials not to exclude this topic from the dialogue.

Three months ago, the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia was unblocked after a 20-month impasse, but now it has stalled again. The issue of the Association has become Serbia’s next condition to return to the dialogue table. But for the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, this issue is closed and will not be discussed anymore.

The Prime Minister’s Office, in a response to the Gazeta Express answered the question that Lajcak asked on Sunday in an interview for the Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung.

“[The Association] is a very sensitive issue that the Constitutional Court of Kosovo has also spoken about – and this opinion should be taken into account. But those who say that now is not the time for it (for the Association to be established), I ask them, ‘When, if not now? You signed this agreement yourself,’” said Lajcak.

However, the Government of Kosovo has emphasized that it stands behind the principle that the Association will not be renegotiated, like any other agreement signed earlier and approved by the Assembly.

“Kosovo remains faithful to the principle that the topics on which an agreement has been reached, and which have received the support of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo thus becoming a legal and an international obligation, cannot be renegotiated or intervened in,” the Prime Minister’s Office told Gazeta Express.