BIRODI: The Serbian community in Kosovo to have autonomy in the areas of security, health, education, culture and heritage

The Bureau of Social Research (BIRODI) assessed that instead of unproductive negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, the focus should be on the implementation of laws that guarantee the autonomy of the Serbian community in Kosovo, N1 reports.

"The Serb List, as the dominant political force at the level of the Serbian community, should return to the institutions of Kosovo and, in accordance with the Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on Inter-Municipal Cooperation, which provide the legal basis for the formation of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities as an instrument of autonomy, initiate its formation ", stated BIRODI in its analysis.

That organization stated that those two laws constituted the legal basis for the application of the Brussels Agreement and that they were incorporated into it, and that the Constitutional Court of Kosovo had never declared them unconstitutional.

"With the application of these two laws, the level of autonomy guaranteed by the Constitution and the law of the Serbian community in Kosovo would be achieved. The implementation of these laws would be part of the conditions for Kosovo's membership in the EU under Chapters 23, 24 and 35", according to BIRODI.

It is also assessed that the Government of Kosovo should act in accordance with those laws and provide the Serbian community with autonomy in the areas of security, health, education, culture and religious heritage, as well as the cooperation of municipalities with a Serbian majority with municipalities and institutions in Serbia.

"The EU should stop with the approach 'it is important that they don't fight', i.e. it is enough for Serbia and Kosovo to negotiate endlessly on repackaged versions of Ahtisaari's plan. The Kosovo problem is, among other things, a consequence of the absence of the EU integration process of Serbia and Kosovo," BIRODI said.