Mijacic: The dialogue will be marked by a few steps and a lot of pressure in the coming year as well

Dragisa Mijacic, the coordinator of the working group of the National Convention of the European Union for Chapter 35, states that the year 2024 will be challenging regarding the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, as there are many open questions and communication disturbances, whether they come from Pristina or Belgrade.

Discussing what can be expected in the continuation of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, given the messages from the EU's special representative for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, that January is the deadline for formalizing the Agreement on the Normalization Process or for amending negotiation Chapter 35 for Serbia, which would incorporate the obligations of the agreement reached in Ohrid, Mijacic believes that both Belgrade and Pristina will likely seek to delay the process.

"Both sides will continue to hope that the elections in America and the EU will result exactly as they wish, in a way that will significantly contribute to their positions within the dialogue framework. So, this year will probably be another extremely unstable year regarding the normalization process," Mijacic says for Kosovo Online.

He emphasizes that, at this moment, it is most important to preserve peace, composure, and human lives.

"And simply, the course of normalization will go as we have seen it this year, meaning very few steps and a lot of pressure," Mijacic notes.

He also commented on the statements of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who, in response to Lajcak's statement that the Community of Serb Municipalities is a legal obligation of Kosovo and that Belgrade does not need to initial the statute of the CSM because it is an "internal document of Kosovo," expressed his readiness to draft his version of the statute with his ministers for communities and returns and local self-government, Nenad Rasic and Elbert Krasniqi.

"The fact that Kurti wants to write the statute of the CSM with his ministers really doesn't hold. The European Union has offered a model of this document that both sides have commented on, and negotiations are actively ongoing. Kurti's statement aims more to create some kind of cacophony in the public than to contribute in any way to the dialogue and normalization process," Mijacic emphasizes.

On the other hand, he points out that Belgrade also has certain statements regarding the acceptance of the Agreement on Normalization and Chapter 35 of the EU negotiations, which concern Kosovo.

"That issue was already agreed upon in Ohrid, the operationalization of these provisions will come in January, precisely what Lajcak announced. So neither side will be able to influence that; it will simply be an integral part of the decision of the European Commission and the European Council on which neither Serbia nor Kosovo will be able to exert influence," our interlocutor notes.