Officials in Brussels voiced satisfaction with the progress made in last week’s fifth round of talks between Ivica Dačić of Serbia and Hashim Thaci of Kosovo, through there were no concrete results. The next round of discussions is scheduled for 4 March.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she was happy with the “significant progress” achieved in talks held last week.
“They have returned to their capitals for consultations and will come back to Brussels on March 4 for a further meeting. The prime ministers are pleased with the significant progress they have made, as am I," she said in a statement.
European Commission sources said the talks between Dačić, Thaci and Ashton focussed on the north of Kosovo and the formation of new institutions to replace the Serbian Interior Ministry and judiciary.
Under a solution proposed by Belgrade, the new institutions in Kosovo would fit into the governing system in Pristina, but would be part of a union of Serb municipalities in Kosovo and would also remain linked to Belgrade.
The result of the negotiations in Brussels, as the Serbian prime minister put it, is that a serious discussion was held on the forming of a union of Serb municipalities.
Dačić said the union of Serb municipalities would not work against the Pristina government, and it should have the option of electing its own representatives and protecting Serb interests in Kosovo.
The union’s authority would cover education, healthcare, the judiciary and other areas of interest to the Serbs in Kosovo, the prime minister added.
Thaci wants end to parallel structures
Thaci said that “everyone is aware” that Serbia’s parallel structures in Kosovo should be disbanded as soon as possible.
“The security structures will be dismantled and other possibilities will be found regarding the adjustment or transformation of the education system, health care and civil servants,” Thaci said after the meeting in Brussels.
Serbian analysts agree that the part of the Belgrade-Pristina talks on Serbian institutions is the most difficult one and do not expect that an agreement will be reached quickly.
Some experts also think Belgrade is “on a tight schedule” in the negotiations, whereas Pristina is in less of a hurry.
Analyst Predrag Simić stressed that it would be too much to expect an agreement in the first meeting of Belgrade and Pristina representatives on Serbian institutions in Kosovo.
“Pristina sees it as the creation of an entity resembling Republika Srpska and wants to avoid it. The fear of ‘Daytonisation’ in Kosovo is excessive, but that is not unusual,” said Simić, referring to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Key issue for the EU
Ahead of the fifth round of negotiations, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso met with Thaci on 19 February and said that the results of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the upcoming round in particular were extremely important for Kosovo and Serbia’s relations with the EU.
The need for results in the dialogue was also stressed by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who had met with Serbian officials headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić in Brussels. Westerwelle said Germany wanted the dialog to lead to tangible results before Serbia can get a date for the start of EU accession talks.
Dačić said in Brussels that getting a date for negotiations with the EU would be a major incentive for reaching an agreement on Kosovo.
“If we are not given a date, that could kill the dialogue because it would give the Serbs the impression that we will simply never get anything from the EU and therefore should not be involved in this dialog at all,” he Dačić.
