Drecun: Pristina hinders progress in the dialogue; CSM brought to the forefront

Milovan Drecun, President of the Committee of the Serbian National Assembly for Kosovo and Metohija, says for RTS that after the recent meeting in Brussels, it is clear that the Pristina side is the one hindering any progress in the dialogue and that the Community of Serb Municipalities is now being brought to the forefront, having been pushed into the background for some time.

The latest talks between negotiators in Brussels ended without success. Albin Kurti did not accept the EU's compromise proposal. An unnamed source in Brussels says that under these circumstances, there will be no further high-level meetings, and announces a response by early October.

Drecun assesses that, given that the positions of the parties were very strongly defined in advance, this was the expected situation.

"The only unknown was whether the EU intermediaries in these negotiations had prepared something new, a new proposal, or perhaps some measures to threaten Pristina, and practically nothing new happened. A compromise proposal was made only about the sequence of negotiations, that is, what should be discussed in parallel," Drecun says.

The only good thing, in his opinion, is that it has now become completely clear that it is the Pristina side that is hindering any progress in the dialogue and that the Serbian Community is now being brought to the forefront, having been pushed into the background for some time.

As for the continuation of the dialogue, Drecun expects that there will be new meetings, as it is a process.

"It would not be good if the dialogue were to stop. How will we solve problems? It is necessary for communication to be maintained between Belgrade and Pristina. No matter how difficult it is and does not bring success, still, when you maintain that communication, when you talk about something, there is some chance of reaching an agreement," Drecun believes.

He emphasizes that the next meeting will have to be well-prepared to see what will be discussed not only at the high level but also at the level of negotiating teams, to prepare some agreement in advance.

"If we want progress, then we have to remove the cause that led to the failure of this meeting. Borrell himself said that the cause of the failure of this meeting and the non-achievement of an agreement was Albin Kurti's insistence on de facto recognition. Then you have to remove that reason with him so that he gives up on it. Not to insist and misuse the EU agreement proposal on the path to normalization of relations to achieve de facto recognition. If they don't do that, there will be no success at the next meeting, there will be no progress in any of this," Drecun believes.

Regarding the possible imposition of stronger sanctions on Pristina, he believes that, in political terms, it does not worry Albin Kurti much, and he does not lose support due to the measures imposed by the EU.