EU: Kosovo should take first steps toward ensuring self-government for the Serb community

The European Union expects both Kosovo and Serbia to fully respect and implement all their obligations from the dialogue, including the 2013 Brussels Agreement, which was ratified by a two-thirds majority in the Assembly of Kosovo, an EU spokesperson told Gazeta Express.

“Under Article 7 of the 2023 Ohrid Agreement, Kosovo committed to establishing concrete arrangements and guarantees to ensure an appropriate level of self-government for the Serb community in Kosovo. The EU expects Kosovo to take the first steps in that direction,” the EU spokesperson said, responding to questions about the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities and whether the EU insists that Kosovo initiate proceedings regarding the draft statute of the CSM before the Constitutional Court, Gazeta Express reported.

The outlet recalls that the 2013 agreement approved by the Assembly of Kosovo includes the Community of Serb Municipalities and that the establishment of the CSM and the self-government stemming from the Ohrid Agreement has been continuously requested from Kosovo.

The creation of the CSM, as Gazeta Express notes, is also linked to Kosovo’s path toward membership in the Council of Europe.

In two days, on April 19, it will mark 13 years since the signing of the Brussels Agreement, which envisages the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities, a commitment that Pristina has not fulfilled to date.