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Gërvalla: We do not implement the EU version of the Association if Belgrade does not implement the Brussels agreement

2024-05-24 20:18:46, Kosova & Bota CNA

Gërvalla: We do not implement the EU version of the Association if Belgrade

The Foreign Minister of Kosovo, Donika Gërvalla said that the government of Kosovo will not implement the variant proposed by the European Union for the establishment of the Association if Serbia does not implement the obligations derived from the Brussels agreement. "We do not implement that draft, which is within the framework of the Brussels process, without Serbia committing itself to implement its part of the work. That's why we have to separate things, either we are dealing with the Association in Brussels or we are dealing with it in Kosovo. But we cannot connect the two processes together".

Ms. Gërvalla said that last autumn the government of Kosovo sent its comments on this version of the EU, but so far no response has been received. "That document in the form it is and in the terms it was submitted is not able to be submitted by us to the Constitutional Court".

Failure to take concrete measures towards the establishment of the Association made it impossible for Kosovo to become a member of the Council of Europe. Ms. Gërvalla described as "political, unfair and unreasonable the demands of some countries of the European Union, that Prishtina take concrete steps towards the creation of the Association with the aim of membership in the Council.

During the interview for the Voice of America, Minister Gërvalla said the government is ready for early parliamentary elections, whenever the opposition is ready, but only if there is consensus among all political forces. "We cannot go to the elections with selective partners from the opposition", she said.

Voice of America: Madam Minister, is the country heading towards new parliamentary elections and when can they be expected?

Donika Gërvalla: In the last three years, the work of the government elected on February 14, 2021, has been accompanied by successes that were not expected by anyone before our election. It is not just about economic development. The rule of law, the increase in the standards of democracy, but also the extraordinary successes in raising the economic level of the country, in employment, in the income from taxes, customs, etc. These have proven that this government is safe, has met expectations and even exceeded them many times over. However, if the opposition in Kosovo is of the opinion that we should go to new elections and there is a consensus for this, we will not hinder this process. But we cannot go to elections selectively, with selective partners from the opposition. We expect the opposition to be serious in its calls for elections and not to do so only in the media, where new elections are not decided. We are ready whenever the opposition is ready. We think it would be better if the elections were held during the long days rather than the short days of winter. However, we are also ready to carry our mandate to the end. This would be the first time that an elected government would complete its mandate after the country's independence.

Gërvalla: We do not implement the EU version of the Association if Belgrade

Voice of America: Ms. Gërvalla, the leaders of Germany, France and Italy had sent a letter to Prime Minister Kurti to make it clear that no other project would be accepted except what is known as the EU project for the Association. Why did you choose at the last minute, when it seemed that everything had failed for Kosovo in the Council of Europe, to make an offer for another project? The opposition has criticized you that these are government games. How do you respond to these criticisms?

Donika Gërvalla: Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe is a right step. The same opposition strongly criticized us in May 2022, when we sent the request for membership, saying that we were making requests for this in vain and that these are political games, because you will not have any success. We have not only succeeded, but over the past two years we have completed two important milestones. The first was the transfer of our request from the ministerial council to the Parliamentary Assembly. The second stage was extremely important, taking the decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, with 82 percent of the votes, including from the deputies of the countries that do not recognize the independence of Kosovo, who gave their positive vote regarding with the finding that Kosovo is a functional parliamentary democracy and has fulfilled all the conditions required for membership in the Council of Europe. All other demands are political, which we think are unfair and unreasonable, because if the Assembly finds that all the conditions have been met, then there should be some obligation to the Ministerial Council to take the procedure further. It is true that three heads of state have sent a letter, where they give their commitments that after joining the Council of Europe, some of the concerns that have been presented during the membership process will have to be dealt with in the right way. The letter you are referring to is the one that the prime minister sent to the heads of these three states weeks ago. So this is not related to the last offer we made. We sent the last offer because we had signals from partners and countries important to Kosovo that such a request would be seen with sympathy and could find support. So it's about the offer we made at the last moment. Second, we sent this because we wanted to be constructive and show that we are willing to work more concretely on our topics and obligations. I am very convinced that Kosovo's path towards the Council of Europe, the European Union and NATO is a necessary path. There are no other alternatives for Kosovo. The more convincing results we achieve in the country, the easier it will be to join these mechanisms.

Gërvalla: We do not implement the EU version of the Association if Belgrade

Voice of America: Referring to what you mentioned that Mr. Kurti was talking about another proposal, what proposal was it about?

Donika Gërvalla: The other proposal was also public and appeared during meetings or direct phone calls or letters sent, it was a proposal that if our partners want, we will be able to handle the issue of the Association in the form that they want and need to handle . But we have no possibility to deal with the issue of the Association except in Brussels because in Brussels we committed to two agreements, the agreement of February last year and the agreement on the sequencing and implementation of this agreement in March and therefore a draft that was submitted to us by Lajçak regarding an Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo, is seen only within the package together with those two requests, those two agreements that we have made. Taking the Association out of this package makes no sense, so if we think that the Association is the subject of the dialogue in Brussels, then we should treat it as part of the package in Brussels.

Voice of America: Madam Minister, the version of the European Union that you refer to for the Association was made available to you about six months ago and you offered to send another version to the Constitutional Court. Does this mean that the European Union variant is practically unacceptable for you?

Donika Gërvalla: The variant that was brought to us was brought to us within the framework of the general package in Brussels, that is, within the framework of the dialogue that takes place with Serbia, facilitated by the European Union, and only in that sense, in that context can that draft be seen without judging whether it is good or bad. We have sent our comments; we have not yet received a response to the comments we sent on that draft, which we sent immediately last fall. Whereas if we see that the issue of a format in which the Serbian community could have a self-organization within the laws and within the constitutional order of the Republic of Kosovo is so urgent, then instead of waiting for a process that Serbia blocks at every step and does not accept it as such, we would have to sit down and decide for ourselves. At this point we have been, this has been our offer. Let's not wait for the blockades. We will not implement that draft, which is part of the Brussels process, without Serbia committing to implement its part of the work. That is why we have to separate things - either we are dealing with the Association in Brussels or we are dealing with it in Kosovo, but we cannot connect the two processes together.

VOA: Does that mean the only reason you don't accept the European Union's version of what you say is that Belgrade isn't signing the agreements?

Donika Gërvalla: No. I told you that we have sent our comments on that. Our comments are substantive and we await responses to our comments in this regard.

Voice of America: Then, why wasn't the version of the European Union sent, Madam Minister, to the Constitutional Court?

Gërvalla: We do not implement the EU version of the Association if Belgrade

Donika Gërvalla: We cannot send drafts to the Constitutional Court, because the Constitutional Court...

Voice of America: The draft of Friedrich Ebert (Stiftung) was also...

Donika Gërvalla: No, we have not said that we will send him either. We have said that based on the principles of a proposal made by Fredrich Ebert Striftung, a study made by Fredrich Ebert Striftung, we would write the draft of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, which we would embrace and then send to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court does not handle drafts, does not handle working documents. The Constitutional Court deals with laws and decisions, but that document, in the form it is and in the manner in which it was submitted, is not able to be submitted by us to the Constitutional Court.

Voice of America: Madam Minister, one last question. Last week, delegations from Kosovo and Serbia met for the seventh time in Brussels, but without reaching an agreement on the dinar issue. Is there any chance of an agreement being reached?

Donika Gërvalla: We were faced at the beginning when the Central Bank of Kosovo issued a new regulation, from all sides we were faced with the request to treat it urgently, to address the issue of the implementation of that regulation urgently. As you can see, we have several times talked about implementation, that is, not about the regulation, not about the legitimacy of that regulation, but about how and in what period we would be able to implement that regulation in full. We went to Brussels about that and talked with the Serbian side, but as usual, while Serbia shouts that things are very urgent, it doesn't miss an opportunity to neglect things and delay them. Therefore, we continue with the implementation of the regulation because the regulation is of an independent institution of the Republic and must be fully implemented. If Serbia continues to delay the processes in Brussels, then we will have to find other ways to implement them./ VOA





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