Brussels, 19 March 2024
In Brussels, the next meetings were held within the dialogue process, where the first deputy prime minister for European Integration, Development and Dialogue of the Republic of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, was present. The meetings held were bilateral with the EU, as well as trilateral with the other side.
The central issue of this meeting was the implementation of the Basic Agreement of Brussels and the Implementing Annex of Ohrid. On this, the deputy prime minister reiterated that the signing of the agreement is a guarantee for its full implementation, in line with Serbia’s continuous refusal to both sign and implement it. The agreement must be implemented through an equal and balanced sequencing plan between the parties that reflects its full implementation.
The possibilities of how to formalize and respectively register the Basic Agreement and the Implementation Annex were discussed. The concern of Kosovo was understood that the non-signing has influenced the non-implementation of the agreement, but also the severity of the situations on the ground, either through barricades or with attacks like the one in Banjska, which then culminated in Prime Minister Bërnabiqi’s letter to the EU in December past, where, among other things, it is said that Serbia does not respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Kosovo. Against this, the meeting reaffirmed the rejection by the Serbian side of the agreement, in the implementation of its signature. In the presence of the mediator, the Serbian chief negotiator made it clear that the parts of the agreement that deal with de facto recognition, territorial integrity or Kosovo’s membership in the UN will never apply to Serbia.
The meeting also discussed other topics of the dialogue process, such as the issue of energy and the success of its implementation on the ground, as well as the request from Kosovo for the return of artifacts, for which the Kosovar side has also submitted a file to the EU. A series of violations of agreements by Serbia were also addressed, including in the field of energy, telecommunications, interference in the frequency band by Serbian television stations, as well as Serbia’s obstruction of Kosovo’s membership in international organizations.
Furthermore, the regulation of the Central Bank of Kosovo and the latest concerns about it were mentioned. The parties agreed that by the weekend they would bring concrete ideas on what a short-term solution could look like, always respecting the said decision of the CBK. The parties agreed to provide technical proposals by March 22, which will then be further discussed in a new meeting. The Republic of Kosovo has made it clear that it will offer technical solutions according to the plan that it also offered to the QUINT states weeks ago.
Last modified: March 20, 2024