The Government of Kosovo has countered Brussels’ recent request that the establishment of the Association of Serbian Majority Municipalities be based on their proposal.
From the Prime Minister’s Office, it was stated today that after a year of meetings, where Kosovo’s offer was rejected, they cannot present what they described as the EU’s draft statute and disregard the package of de facto mutual recognition.
In the government’s statement, it was noted that the EU draft statute does not bear the signature of either the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, his envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, or Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and that document is merely a non-paper.
“Our demands always aim to ensure the full and unconditional implementation of the agreed agreements. Therefore, our insistence is that there should be a signing of the Basic Agreement and its Implementation Annex. Our positions and proposals always respect an order of priorities. Thus, we cannot, a year after the meeting of October last year, in which our proposal for signing the package was rejected, extract the EU draft statute from the package and throw out the package for at least de facto mutual recognition. We remind you that the EU draft statute does not have the signature of either the EU High Representative Borrell or his envoy Lajcak, let alone Prime Minister Kurti. The status of the draft statute is that of a non-paper, one among several proposals made in past years,” the announcement stated.
Full Response from the Government:
At the meeting on October 26, 2023, in Brussels with German Chancellor Scholz, French President Macron, Italian Prime Minister Meloni, European Council President Michel, EU High Representative Borrell, and EU envoy Lajcak, Prime Minister Kurti offered to sign the Basic Agreement package, including the draft proposed by the EU and the U.S. for the implementation of Article 7 in connection with Article 10 of the Basic Agreement. This was rejected by Serbia. In addition to refusing to sign the package, Serbia requested that a side letter be accepted, which effectively undermined three principles of the Basic Agreement, the Implementation Annex, and the draft proposed by five envoys on October 21, 2023. At the end of that meeting, the Prime Minister stated: “Acceptance implies signing; only signing implies acceptance and guarantees implementation,” as emphasized in the official statement from the Government of the Republic of Kosovo regarding that meeting, which can be found at this link: [link].
Since there was no signing, there is also no acceptance.
This is not the first time Prime Minister Kurti’s offers related to the implementation of Article 7 in connection with Article 10 of the Basic Agreement have been rejected. A similar offer was rejected in Ohrid in March 2023 when Prime Minister Kurti expressed readiness to draft the statute for the Association of Serbian Majority Municipalities based on the 2015 Constitutional Court decision, the 2015 letter from the EU High Representative Mogherini, and the public opinion issued by U.S. envoy Escobar and State Department advisor Chollet in 2023.
Our demands always aim to ensure the full and unconditional implementation of the agreed agreements. Therefore, our insistence is that there should be a signing of the Basic Agreement and its Implementation Annex. Our positions and proposals always respect an order of priorities. Thus, we cannot, a year after the meeting of October last year, in which our proposal for signing the package was rejected, extract the EU draft statute from the package and throw out the package for at least de facto mutual recognition. We remind you that the EU draft statute does not have the signature of either the EU High Representative Borrell or his envoy Lajcak, let alone Prime Minister Kurti. The status of the draft statute is that of a non-paper, one among several proposals made in past years.
