In recent days, the President of France Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have asked the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti to take concrete steps towards the establishment of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo as part of the efforts for membership in the Council of Europe. These requests are made only a few weeks before the Council of Ministers of this organization can vote on Kosovo’s membership.
The European expert who leads the European Initiative for Stability, Gerald Knaus, says that making Kosovo’s membership conditional on the creation of the Association would be a mistake and would make it impossible to achieve any of them.
VOA: Mr. Knaus, you are in Washington for meetings regarding the American perspective on the issue of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities. Can you share with us your perspective?
Gerald Knaus: It is a historic moment as we just had a vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the main institution of democracies in Europe, which now has 75 years of existence, where the overwhelming majority was in favor of the membership of Kosovo to become part of it. Eighty-two percent of the members of the Parliamentary Assembly, coming from all the countries of Europe, from 46 countries. Greeks, Armenians, Ukrainians, Germans, French, Italians voted for Kosovo to become a member of this institution. A Greek reporter, the former Greek conservative minister who said that she has analyzed Kosovo, legal experts have reviewed Kosovo’s application, then two other committees of this parliamentary assembly as well. Everyone came to the conclusion that Kosovo has fulfilled the conditions of the Council of Europe. One of the points in this debate was the issue of the Association, and from the European point of view, there is something unclear for me, too, about this issue.
Every European country has an association of municipalities and we know they look the same. But everywhere they are based on freedom of association, which is a fundamental value, which means that municipalities create them themselves. They are done together, the state is not allowed to stop them and as long as they do not violate the law, there is an understanding that it is an action that is allowed to municipalities everywhere. There is already a community of municipalities in Kosovo. There is a community of municipalities in Serbia, in Bosnia there are two such, so I have a hard time understanding why we don’t say “why the municipalities are not creating this association” which the laws of Kosovo allow.
Voice of America: But it is a request of the international community from the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue that has been requested for a long time, starting with the American government, but also governments in Europe. Hasn’t this issue already been decided, it is already a public demand and Kosovo has agreed to its creation?
Gerald Knaus: The association must be founded, but the question is, is it an association in Europe, as something that is founded based on private law by citizens, or by entities such as municipalities? Here is another question that surprises me in this debate. It should be established for Serb-majority municipalities, which are rightfully given strong protection in the Constitution of Kosovo. Actions that infringe on the competences and rights of the Serbian community and Serbian municipalities will not have to be undertaken. Therefore, they must agree to the establishment, the form of such an association, but until today, we do not have a single proposal from the municipalities, which would tell us how this association would look like. Last year, a proposal was drawn up, which was clearly a provocation, because it was not about association, but about the creation of a new level of government, which is not something that the Europeans, the Americans or the Constitution of Kosovo have asked for. If we really respect the rights of minorities, we should wait for a proposal from the Serbian municipalities, and in fact they do not need the approval of the Government of Kosovo to create it. They can then go to the relevant ministry, register it. I have examined the law, I have thought myself, with colleagues in Kosovo, to register an association, because it can be done. The idea that the Government of Kosovo should impose by decree an association of Serbian municipalities, which they have never specifically requested in a certain form, violates all European standards.
Voice of America: What is the reaction in Washington to this position of yours?
Gerald Knaus: For me, it is important what the main European experts write, including those in the Council of Europe, constitutional law experts who deal with these issues in all European democracies. And they have written very clearly that an association must be established, it has been promised, but that there is also the right to association and it is something that can be done. The Government of Kosovo should in any case promote it, it cannot stop its establishment, this is not allowed. Municipalities have broad powers, they can cooperate according to the law. All these elements are already in the Ahtisaari plan of 2007, which was the basis of the Constitution by which Kosovo was recognized as a state.
I don’t know how associations are formed in the United States, I assume that here too they are established through private law, by citizens or groups. But, in Europe, associations of municipalities are established by municipalities. And the idea that because of this Kosovo should be blocked from joining an institution that protects human rights, when in that institution, all those who analyzed Kosovo said that it meets all the conditions, would be a violation serious of the principle of equal treatment.
Voice of America: But we saw the French government, the government in Berlin, ask Prime Minister Kurti to take concrete steps about the Association, before the next vote in the Council of Europe. How do you comment on this development?
Gerald Knaus: The government itself has promised in the letter sent to the Council of Europe that it will take steps soon, not in the distant future, but now. I can think of many things that the government can do and it seems to me that this week it has started to meet the municipalities, invite the mayors, sit down with them and talk about what they specifically want. The problem is in the north, as you know, in the four municipalities due to the resignation of the Serbian mayors and they boycotted the elections and now the voters were called to boycott the efforts for new elections, we have no mayors. But still, you can ask the deputy mayors to jointly propose something that the municipalities want, and then the government should do whatever it can to make sure it works.
We recently wrote about this issue. I think that (the association) is a trap for Serbian President Vučić and it is an effective maneuver. He says, Kosovo should establish the association, which is unusual, but whatever they establish, we will not like it and we will reject it. But if you asked us what we want, we do not draw up a proposal. What President Vucic wants is a Serbian Republic, in fact he wants more than a Serbian Republic. He has managed to create a situation where the Government of Kosovo will be blocked for something that he, or more importantly the municipalities, have not put on the table. This is a real failure of international diplomacy. And if these two issues were connected, the Association with the membership in the Council of Europe, I guarantee you that none of them will be realized. Such a result will have serious consequences, very harmful for minorities, because the Council of Europe is concerned with the protection of the rights of minorities, access to the European Court of Human Rights.
VOA: We are only a few weeks away from this vote. Do you think that Kosovo will be conditioned?
Gerald Knaus: There is something strange. The government has been asked to send a project (draft) that is unofficial, for which the Serbian side has not said that they agree, a project from the international community, from the European Union, but unofficially from the European Union. It is about a ‘non-paper’ (unofficial document), a draft statute, and Kosovo is asked to send it to the Constitutional Court. If you ask me, I would do it, because I see no danger. At the end of the day, the association will only work if the Serbs like it, if in the meantime the Constitutional Court examines it and says it is in line or not in line with the Constitution. It is likely that the Constitutional Court will not consider it at all, because it is an unofficial document. In Germany, the court would not consider an informal document. But let’s leave it to the Court to make such a decision. My advice is, if this is the only request, it does not change the reality that an association exists after two months, after three months, until the end of the year, next year, it must have the agreement of those with whom it is made, that is, the municipalities Serbs and I am not sure at the moment that they are really willing to agree to such a thing. I’m not clear what the logic is, but if that’s the condition, I’d send it.
Voice of America: Have you seen the Association’s draft statute? What do you think about it?
Gerald Knaus: It clearly states that it is a statute for an association in the Republic of Kosovo, that territorial integrity is guaranteed. I have it here, with me. It says that the territory of Kosovo is guaranteed, it says that the association is founded on the basis of existing powers at the municipality level, which will not acquire any executive powers. Before we discuss this statute, I want to know, does the Serbian municipality agree with these points? It would make sense, right?
VOA: Where does the danger lie?
Gerald Knaus: If they (municipalities) agree with the territorial integrity of Kosovo, it would be a good thing. In the statute, some things seem surprising to me. Why will an international mediation role be included in an association of municipalities? But send it to the Court, let the Court examine it and then negotiate with the Serbian municipalities.
Voice of America: Let’s go over the situation on the ground. How do you rate it? Finally, we saw the inclusion of Mr. Vulin in the composition of the new government of Serbia, in the role of deputy prime minister. What warning is this?
Gerald Knaus: As an objective observer, what we have seen in the last year is more violence, more threats than at any other time in a long period. We have seen violent clashes between Serbian demonstrators and KFOR, many with serious injuries. We have seen the paramilitaries and a large amount of weapons that entered the northern part of Kosovo. We recently saw military maneuvers. We have heard the President of Serbia when he says that he wants to build the most powerful army in the region, that he is proud of the new weapons that he wants to produce, a large number of killer drones, kamikaze drones, for the purchase of 12 fighter planes from France and as he himself said, after the trip to Paris, and after that he asks the French President to postpone the vote in the Council of Europe. There is no connection here, but we are seeing the militarization of the Serbian discourse.
And then we have people like Mr. Vulin and others who say openly that they want the creation of a great Serbia. He uses other words, says that all Serbs should live together in one state and decide together. This is the same thing as Greater Serbia. It is about an old agenda, which can be achieved through violence, through war, and I fear that we have never been closer to new clashes and new waves of violence in the Balkans in the last 20 years. What should be done? This would be a disaster for everyone, including all Serbs in the region. But of course for Kosovo, for Serbia’s neighbors, after all that happened, many people would flee, very quickly. We need to make sure that there is an alternative vision that everyone sees. This alternative vision, where all the borders in the region after five years look like the borders between Germany and Poland, Germany and France, invisible, where all the states of the region are integrated into the European common market, where they enjoy the four freedoms, where all are simultaneously moving towards membership in the European Union, where they can all be part of the Schengen system with the EU.
This vision is realistic and it is another way, that five years from this moment, someone who lives in Leposaviq or Zveçan in the northern part of Kosovo, can have two citizenships, the border is invisible, lives in Kosovo, the borders are not changed, but can move freely as part of the largest borderless space in the world, within this European space of freedom. We achieved this in Northern Ireland. It is about two states, there is a border, it has not changed, but it has become invisible. This should be the other path that should be created as soon as possible, as an alternative to the nationalist agenda, which aims to fight to change the borders.
Voice of America: How do you see the engagement of the international community with the region on these issues?
Gerald Knaus: There is a lot of good will, but not enough strategy. I think the threat is being underestimated. Recently we have two leaders, first Vladimir Putin. If someone talks for years about the need to have a powerful army, to rearm, to challenge the sovereignty of the neighbors, to build the climate of war that is expected, eventually there will be war. We saw it in 2022 with the attack for the complete invasion of Ukraine. We’ve seen it in the Caucasus, with Aliyev in Azerbaijan, who has been talking for years, building up the army, we’ve seen him taking territory and now threatening Armenia’s territory every week. We must take seriously what the leaders say. I would take seriously what the leaders in Serbia are saying, and they are constantly talking about how Aliyev is an inspiration, that the borders in the Balkans – they certainly do not accept the border with Kosovo – and that force may be necessary.
These statements are currently being underestimated in the capitals and I would like people to wake up and for the leaders in the region and in Europe to understand that the valuable thing we have had in the last 20 years in the Western Balkans is peace, the opportunity for development, said the young people who are growing up for the first time, the first generation of young people who have not experienced war and repression, deportation and genocide, Srebrenica. For the first time we have had this opportunity and it is very valuable. Now we need to integrate the whole region into the zone of democratic peace that we have had in Western Europe for the last 75 years.
VOA: Many observers in Kosovo and beyond see the tension between the Kosovo government and its international partners. How do you think this government has managed the relationship with Washington and Brussels and other capitals?
Gerald Knaus: I am not in those meetings, I only see the results. And my impression is that the dialogue is creating tensions. The way it is designed. We have said for a long time, dialogue is destined to fail. Why? For the reason that in order for Serbia to make any concessions, de facto or de jure, to recognize Kosovo, it must be offered something big from the European Union, not from Kosovo. And for Kosovo to undertake difficult decisions, it must be offered something big, not from Serbia, because it will not do it, but from the European Union. In fact, we have two negotiations. Kosovo negotiates with the European Union and Serbia negotiates with the European Union. This is the reason why we had some achievements in 2013. At that time, Serbia started the membership talks, Kosovo started the Stabilization and Association Agreement, both sides had a feeling that you are moving towards a better future. We need this again. Take the example of Gibraltar. Spain and the United Kingdom disagree on sovereignty. If they are told you have to choose it now, they won’t agree. It is not a conflict, they managed to freeze it, but they will not agree. I don’t think Serbia will ever agree to recognize the border, unless it is part of the EU membership process, which is stable.
We need this for peace. For the whole region to see that it has a better future. This is how the conflict between France and Germany was resolved over the sovereignty of the territory, over the Suddetenland, which is part of Germany, and which for many years after the war was controlled by France. When they created joint institutions, they were integrated, at that point France and Germany were in a position to say it doesn’t matter where the Suddetenland is, it can go back to Germany.
Voice of America: Is the European Union ready for such a commitment?
Gerald Knaus: We have to argue about this, it’s a matter of war or peace. If you look at Europe, if you look at the 50 countries that we have in Europe today, then every country that is not a member of the European Union or NATO has had a conflict in the last 30 years. War, state collapse as in the case of Albania during the 1990s, large scale repression as in Belarus, or war, civil war and occupation. Every country, except Montenegro, has had a war on its territory. We have a war zone and a peace zone in Europe in the last 30 years, in the post-Cold War period, and we need to expand the peace zone. Kosovo and the Balkans must become part of this area of democratic peace as soon as possible and the first concrete step for this, which is why it is so important, is for Kosovo to join the Council of Europe./VOA
