Kamberi: The ping-pong over the CSM draft statute will continue between the Kosovo Government and the Quint

Belgzim Kamberi, Director of the "Musine Kokalari" Institute, says for Kosovo Online that there are significant divisions between the Kosovo Government and the Quint regarding the draft statute for the Community of Serb Municipalities and, as he says, it seems that this ping-pong game between the authorities in Pristina and the Quint over the CSM will continue.

"While the Quint, the EU, and the US say that the European draft is the one that should be sent to the Constitutional Court, the Kosovo Government has recently backtracked and is talking more about another model they would take as an example, namely the model of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation. This proves that there is a major division between the authorities and the Quint, not only regarding how they see the creation of the Community of Serb Municipalities but also how they view the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia," Kamberi assessed.

As he added, it was evident that the Kosovo Government was not prepared to send the European draft statute of the CSM to the Constitutional Court to enter the Council of Europe. For this reason, he believes it will be difficult to achieve any progress on the CSM and the implementation of the Brussels-Ohrid Agreement without a new establishment in the European Union and in Kosovo.

"We are already in the pre-election phase, and it is hard to expect any progress in implementing the agreements from the Brussels Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia before the new elections in Kosovo," he said.

Regarding whether progress could be expected with the arrival of a new EU mediator in the dialogue, who will replace Miroslav Lajcak in September, Kamberi says it is difficult to predict, given that elections are also coming up in the United States and because of other geopolitical issues occurring not only in Ukraine and the Balkans but everywhere.

"We will see if there will be a new dynamic for the implementation of the agreements. Currently, it is very difficult to expect progress considering that there is not much willingness in Serbia to implement the agreements now because there is also the Resolution on Srebrenica and many other issues. So, we are in some kind of vacuum situation," Kamberi concluded.