Can the CSM Statute, proposed by the “big five“, respect the red lines of Belgrade and Pristina?

The draft of the CSM Statute presented by the "big five" to Belgrade and Pristina two weeks ago has not yet been disclosed to the public, and according to Kosovo Online interlocutors, it is possible that this proposal contains elements that were not foreseen in the agreements on the CSM from 2013 and 2015, and that it includes parts of certain European autonomy models.

The proposal of the big five, which was agreed not to be made public, has been tentatively accepted by both sides as the basis or framework for further discussions on what the CSM should look like. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that a good portion of this proposal was already contained in the principles adopted in the 2013 agreement and expressed Belgrade's readiness to discuss it. However, he also expressed concerns that the CSM "will not be seen soon".

On the other hand, Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti claims that the proposal is in line with Kosovo's Constitution and does not necessarily correspond to the CSM envisioned in the Brussels Agreements of 2013 and 2015. He clarified that he had not yet accepted the offered draft because there had been no signing of the document, but once it was signed, it would be sent for review to the Constitutional Court.

In the "big five" group, which visited Pristina and Belgrade on October 21, there were the EU Special Representative for the Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, the US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, advisers on foreign policy to the Presidents of France and Germany, Emmanuel Bonne and Jens Plotner, and the diplomatic adviser to the Prime Minister of Italy, Alessandro Cattaneo.

Can the proposed CSM Statute respect the red lines of both Belgrade and Pristina? In other words, whether the Community can have the authorities defined in the First Brussels Agreement of 2013, which is crucial for the Serbian side, while at the same time aligning with Kosovo's Constitution, which is insisted upon by Pristina.

The Coordinator of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union for Chapter 35, Dragisa Mijacic, points out that there is already a plan from 2013 and 2015 that provided the basis for what the CSM should look like and what its competencies should be. There is also a Management team that has drafted the Statute and has already presented one version of it in Brussels. It is questionable, he assesses, whether a new team will be formed to create the statute or if the "big five" has brought a document based on a "take it or leave it" principle.

"What matters most to us is how the issue of the autonomy of certain competencies, primarily in the fields of health, culture, education, but also in other areas that the CSM would deal with, such as spatial planning and economic development, will be resolved. At this moment, no one in the public has disclosed the document, and if there are any credible sources, so we will wait and see", Mijacic says.

He believes it is not realistic that any of the 15 European models mentioned by the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, have been copied in the "big five" draft, but it is possible that parts of those models have been incorporated into the proposed statute's framework.

"Every autonomy is created in relation to the history and political system in which it is to be established. So it is not realistic for any of those 15 models to be copied, but parts of those models can be incorporated into the statute that the "big five" brought to Belgrade and Pristina. This means that it is assumed that this statute meets some EU standards for autonomy, although there are no classical European standards when it comes to autonomy because each autonomy is a separate story. However, it will comply with the standards of the Convention on Human Rights, on minority communities, and the like", Mijacic said to Kosovo Online.

Our interlocutor says that Kosovo cannot escape the obligation to establish the CSM and that the question is what form the CSM will take, not whether Kosovo will establish it.

"We know Kurti's views; he would like the CSM to be modeled after the Joint Council of Municipalities in Eastern Slavonia, which is an institution that simply does not have a significant and important function. Such a community certainly does not serve the interests of the Serbs and what the Serbs in Kosovo expect to gain from this process", Mijacic stated.

Igor Novakovic from the Center for International and Security Affairs believes that the draft of the Statute is likely in compliance with Kosovo's Constitution and contains elements that were not envisaged in the First Brussels Agreement of 2013 and the 2015 Agreement.

"It is very likely that there are some elements not foreseen in the 2015 Agreement, or the First Brussels Agreement of 2013," Novakovic said to Kosovo Online.

As he points out, there may also be some elements related to the 15 models of European best practices previously mentioned by the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak. Novakovic suggests that during the reporting on the meeting with the "big five" on October 21, it was said that the Statute had taken into account one of those models.

"What is it, it is very ungrateful to talk about, but I assume it is in line with what was agreed in the Brussels Agreement this year, where we again have the mention of the best European practices. It is about Article 7, which talks about the right of self-governance for the Serbian minority in Kosovo and those European practices", Novakovic adds.

Even though the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, said that the "big five" proposal was a "good framework for further talks," Novakovic is skeptical about the implementation of the CSM.

"The main problem here is that Kurti's entire political platform since 2014 is based on opposition to negotiations, i.e., opposition to what was agreed upon. The issue of the Community was crucial in 2015 when tear gas was thrown in the Assembly, and there were protests on the streets, so it is very difficult for him to now defend the formation of that body, regardless of the basis", Novakovic says, who believes that the negotiations will certainly continue.

The formalities insisted upon by Kurti - signing the proposal and verifying the constitutionality of the draft of the Statute by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, as Novakovic believes, will prove to be significant obstacles to accepting the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities.

"Accepting the Community will politically cost both Kurti and the Self-determination Movement, and besides those ideological beliefs, this is one of the reasons why I am skeptical about the implementation of that provision of the agreement", Novakovic emphasizes.

Political analyst Leart Hoxha says that the Kosovo Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, is now trying to give the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities a new "packaging" that will be in line with the Constitution and will not hinder other political parties in Kosovo.

"Kurti will insist a lot on packaging this and presenting it as a new way of implementing and interpreting Article 7 of the Brussels Agreement, which implies self-governance for the Serbian community, but, in principle, it must be some mechanism. If it won't be called the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities it will be called something else, but he (Kurti) must ensure that it complies with the Kosovo Constitution. If envoys have presented a draft, I believe they have made sure it complies with the Kosovo Constitution, and if so, no one on the Kosovo side will have any valid reason to reject it", Hoxha believes.

When asked if the envoys had brought a new model for the CSM compared to existing European practice, Hoxha expressed doubt.

"I doubt there can be anything new because someone would have to be extremely creative to come up with something new. Legal experts, I consulted with claim that none of these models goes beyond the Kosovo Constitution, which means the Kosovo Constitution already provides for most of it. The problem is that neither the Kosovo Government nor the Serbian community here were able, nor did they have the will, to use 100% of the possibilities provided by the Constitution. I think it is time to talk about it and revise it", Hoxha said.

He emphasizes that "political maneuvers" are currently being worked on, and the phrasing is being changed depending on what each party wants to hear.

"If Kurti is bothered by the word 'Community', he will use another word, if the opposition in Kosovo demands it to be within the framework of the Kosovo Constitution, it will be, if Vucic and the Serbian community here want a formulation that allows them to justify themselves to their voters, I think that will happen", Hoxha says.