ANALYSIS

DIALOGUE BETWEEN PRISHTINA AND BELGRADE – Talks should not be
reason for delay of the settlement of final status

  

Focus Kosova: Article by Center for Political and Social Research in Prishtina by Vllaznim Bytyqi

The Center for Political and Social Research (www.cpsr-kosova.org) is a young but vibrant Kosovar non-governmental organization associated with the University of Prishtina. CPSR aims to offer independent and non-partisan research that is useful to experts and policy-makers. The aim of these papers is to identify the real problems and to direct in rights address to key stakeholders and actors by providing with recommendations after the extensive empirical research in filed.

For the past few months, we have been aware of pressure being applied by the international community - especially the EU – for Pristina to engage in direct dialogue with Belgrade regarding practical issues. The EU apparently regards this as essential to building the confidence and cooperative environment that will be needed later in order to address the question of Kosovo's final status.

Talking about "practical" discussions on returning refugees, fighting organized crime, border controls, state property, infrastructure, is in interest of both sides if they’re willing to make compromises.

But on the other hand, we have to take into consideration a decade of frozen relations between Serbia and Kosovo as well as the failure of the Serbian Regime in past to discuss with Albanian leaders without the strong presence of the international community and in particular the United States.

An additional factor casting a shadow over the proposed talks is the non-serious approach of the Parliament of Serbia-Montenegro in adopting its “Resolution on Kosovo-Metohija”, which insists that in the future Kosovo should be ruled by Belgrade.

The dialogue will be worthless and doomed to failure unless both sides recognize one another as equal partners, and work earnestly at finding compromises on issues that are in their mutual interests.

Also critical to the success of the talks would be avoiding any move that appears to the eventual settlement of Kosovo’s status in a way that either makes the Albanian side lose its hopes for independence and or sharpens Serbia’s anxieties about losing Kosovo.

At the same time, the beginning of talks between Prishtina and Belgrade should not be and excuse for delaying resolution of the final status of Kosovo. The resolution of Kosovo’s status has great practical urgency for both sides. As Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zhivkovic recently acknowledged: “Serbia cannot become fully democratic as long as Kosovo's status remains unresolved”. Kosovo’s institutions, for their part, need to have international recognition in order to be fully integrated into international structures in the future.

It has been speculated that dialogue between Prishtina and Belgrade may commence very soon at the EU's headquarters in Brussels. Without strong US involvement, any agreement mediated by Brussels will lack the credibility required for implementation.

Above all, Washington and Brussels must agree on a timetable for final status, with a plan for the integration of region that includes Kosovo.

No agreement between Belgrade and Kosovo leaders should be implemented with any expectation of sustainability until Kosovo is declared an independent entity and its government empowered to act as a sovereign body with the authority to ensure implementation of its part of the agreement.