On October 28, just four days after the last meeting of the Chief Negotiators, Andin Hoti, the head of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, stated that in the joint commission overseeing and facilitating the implementation of the Declaration on Missing Persons, Serbia had requested that Kosovo be represented by UNMIK and the Temporary Institutions of Self-Government (IPVQ).
Nearly two weeks later, the European Union denied that such a proposal had been made in Brussels and called for the issue to not be politicized.
“The matter was addressed during a meeting of Special Envoys two weeks ago, with the goal of finding a way to overcome the remaining open questions. While an agreement is near, the EU Special Representative, Miroslav Lajčak, is waiting for a response on one final open issue. The representation of Kosovo by UNMIK in the Special Commission has not been proposed and was not discussed,” said Peter Stano to Dukagjini.
Despite this statement, Andin Hoti insists that UNMIK was mentioned in Serbia’s proposal.
According to Hoti, it is Serbia that is politicizing the issue, not Kosovo.
“As I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, Serbia’s games and the politicization of this issue are relentless. In Brussels, during the last meeting, we were presented with a document where UNMIK was mentioned, and Serbia will not withdraw from this under any circumstances. This is an attempt to bring Kosovo back to the pre-independence period, let alone before the Brussels Declaration. Naturally, this cannot be further discussed with us. We continue to wait for Brussels to resolve the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Joint Commission, as we agreed in December 2023,” said Hoti.
On the other hand, Stano emphasized that the EU is awaiting the implementation of the declaration and expects the parties to agree on the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Special Commission, or in other words, the regulations.