EU: Draft statute starting point in the discussions for the Association

2023-05-10 09:24:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The EU states that the draft statute for the Association presented by the management team is not final, but an important starting point. For his part, Kurti presented his draft vision. Two draft statutes and no solution?

In a debate on Kosovo, held on Tuesday (05.09) in the European Parliament, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Affairs, Oliver Varhelyi, was also present.

For him, the draft statute of the management team of Kosovo should be the starting point in the discussions on the establishment of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority.

According to the draft statute, which was presented on May 2 in Brussels, the association will be a "special form of organization, established for the purpose of protecting human and minority rights", said Varhelyi.

Croatia offers its own model of national minorities

The European Commissioner emphasized the creation of the Association as an obligation arising from the dialogue agreements. "All obligations from the dialogue must be implemented, without delay and without conditions, including the one from the agreements of 2013 and 2015 for the creation of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority.

As the special representative for dialogue Miroslav Lajçak has underlined, the draft proposal presented at the last meeting by the management team is the starting point for further discussions on the establishment of the Association", said Varhelyi.

A model for Kosovo was offered by the Foreign Minister of Croatia, Gordan Grlic Radman, who visited Pristina on Tuesday.

The Croatian model for dealing with the rights of national minorities can serve as a good model for Kosovo as well, Radman said, adding that his country supports any agreement between Kosovo and Serbia.

According to the Croatian Foreign Minister, his country's model was successful, but there are many models in the world that can be used.

Gërvalla: We don't need a second Serbian Republic

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, Donika Gërvalla, for her part, said that Kosovo has considered numerous models for the protection of minorities, but underlined that "the Constitution of Kosovo offers minorities much more rights than all the models of others".

"We have dealt with models, we have seen which ones are not expressed for us, because they violate the red lines we have in this dialogue. No type of formation, no type of Association, no type of mechanism can be implemented in Kosovo, if it violates firstly the country's sovereignty, secondly the country's Constitution and thirdly the functionality of the Republic of Kosovo, because these three elements are the basis for the functioning of the state.

What we have seen in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the Republika Srpska installed there is a complete blockage of the functioning of the state. It is not going to happen in the Republic of Kosovo. This region has enough of one Serbian Republic and does not need a second one", said Minister Donika Gërvalla.

The first draft of the Association

A week ago, the management team for drafting the statute for the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority, presented the first draft in Brussels.

This draft has 67 articles and is divided into nine chapters, such as: general provisions, community issues, organizational structure, membership in the Association and relations between member municipalities, assets and income, forms of direct decision-making, changes in the statute of the Association, dissolution of the Association and transitional and final provisions.

According to the draft statute that was published on Tuesday by the media in Pristina, the Association will be a "special form of organization, established for the purpose of protecting the human and minority rights" of all residents and communities living in the municipalities that are part of the Association. Its administrative center, based on the presented draft statute, is North Mitrovica. There will be an Assembly of the Association, elected by the member municipalities, and the Assembly is the supreme body of the Association.

This draft statute, which was published by the media in Pristina, was strongly opposed by the President of the Democratic League of Kosovo in the opposition, Lumir Abdixhiku. According to him, "the draft charter document, drawn up by the Management Team, is more than an Association and it is more than an Autonomy, it is a state within a state.

He wrote on social networks that "a body that enacts laws, manages national assets, public wealth and natural resources, a body that organizes elections, holds referendums and receives powers from the Assembly and the Government of Kosovo, has no place in our state and constitutional regulation ".

Prime Minister Kurti's draft vision

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, rejected this draft statute as soon as it was presented in Brussels, saying that it is incompatible with the Constitution and laws of Kosovo, but also European values. At the same time, Kurti proposed a draft vision, as he calls it, of how the values ??and principles governing the issue of minority communities in Kosovo should be.

In this document of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, among other things, it is said that he will offer opportunities to members of the Serbian community in Kosovo to promote and protect their rights through the "self-management framework", a direct communication channel with the Government of Kosovo , as well as opportunities to be financed by Kosovo and other countries, including Serbia.

And the President of Serbia, after Kurti's rejection of the draft of the Association presented by the management team, said that "he is very worried, because it is clear that Pristina does not want to fulfill its obligation of ten years ago for the formation of the Association of Municipalities with Serbian majority".

"Kosovo will either accept what we agreed on in 2015, or it will be the end of everything," said Serbian President Aleksandar Vuqiç, after the May 2 meeting in Brussels with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti.

A draft vision for the Association that was presented by Prime Minister Kurti is being supported by the Great Britain's ambassador to Kosovo, Nicholas Abbot, who said that it is time for "Kosovo, on its part, to officially present the draft statute for the Association" .

According to him, such a document should be presented based on the draft vision presented by the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti. "Kosovo's allies want to see progress in the normalization of relations with Serbia", said Ambassador Abbot, confirming that the British envoy for the Western Balkans, Stuart Peach, is visiting Kosovo this week.

In 2013, Kosovo and Serbia agreed on the establishment of the Association. Also in 2015, its principles were agreed upon. In 2015, the Constitutional Court of Kosovo found that 22 articles of the Association are in conflict with the Constitution of Kosovo.

The establishment of the Association is already foreseen with the agreement reached in Ohrid on March 18 between Kosovo and Serbia. The American envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said last week that "the implementation of the Ohrid agreement starts with the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian Majority in Kosovo"./ DW