Kosovo-Serbia dialogue continues today in Brussels

Gazeta Express

17/09/2020 9:11

Experts level teams of Kosovo and Serbia will meet today in Brussels and under facilitation of the EU special representative on Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, will discuss on settlement of mutual financial claims and arrangements for non-majority communities.

Lajcak confirmed Thursday’s meeting saying that Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti agreed their negotiators will follow up on settlement of mutual financial claims and arrangements for non-majority community. “Both topics are very complex. That is why we will discuss financial claims tomorrow and arrangements for non-majority community in coming days,” Lajcak said on Twitter.

Today’s meeting has triggered debates following reports that parties in Brussels are expected to discuss on the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. The president of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, opposition parties and civil society, consider that opening of this topic is dangerous.

Prime Minister Hoti said Thursday that the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities will not be discussed during Thursday’s meeting in Brussels and reiterated that the Association if established will have no executive powers, as claimed by opposition. President Thaci issued a statement Wednesday urging the Parliament of Kosovo to adopt a resolution and stop the Prime Minister negotiate internal affairs during dialogue with Serbia.

“The discussion on the Association, is the beginning of the installation of a Republika Srpska inside the territory of the Republic of Kosovo. Whereas discussion on Kosovo’s properties with Serbia is contrary to the Constitution and the laws of Kosovo and is a violation of the sovereignty of our state,” Thaci said in a press release issued by the President’s Office. In 2016 the Constitutional Court of Kosovo ruled that 23 articles of the Agreement on establishment of the Association of Serb Municipalities are in violation with the Constitution. /GazetaExpress/