Andric Rakic: Political conditions for opening the bridge remain, part of the Brussels Agreement must be fulfilled

Milica Andric Rakic, Executive Director of the New Social Initiative, assessed that although the European Union considers the security condition for opening the main bridge over the Ibar to have been met, questions remain regarding the political conditions, including consultations with the local community and the fulfillment of obligations under the Brussels Agreement.

The European Union has confirmed that the conditions for opening the main bridge over the Ibar have been met, stating that KFOR's statement this week fulfilled the requirement for consultations with “security partners.”

Andric Rakic believes that this response is imprecise in some respects, but that it is clear from the response that the EU considers the part concerning consultations with security actors to have been fulfilled, that this requirement has been respected, and that this part of the conditions for opening the bridge has been met.

“The political conditions remain. Previously, one of those conditions was that North Mitrovica have a legitimate mayor, which has also now been fulfilled, but that this be done in consultation with the local community and that, for these purposes, the Brussels Agreement concerning the opening of the bridge also be fulfilled. I think this is primarily a task for the media, to ask the European Union additional questions about what happened with those political conditions relating to the agreement on opening the bridge, because there was also talk of a memorandum of cooperation between South and North Mitrovica in order to carry out the demarcation of cadastral municipalities, as well as about that part involving consultations with the local authorities, which are now legitimate,” Andric Rakic told Kosovo Online.

According to her, it is crucial to see whether anything has changed in that regard as well, but she does not believe that the European Union has done anything, as she put it, “on its own initiative.”

“If they consider the conditions to have been met and state unequivocally that this applies to all conditions, both security and political, then that means that some kind of discussion on the matter took place in Brussels and that a consensus was reached with all sides, including Serbia, that the time had come for this. But this first needs to be clarified with them, because the response was not entirely precise in all respects. They confirmed that coordination with KFOR had taken place and that the security conditions had been met,” Andric Rakic said.