Pavkovic on Brussels meetings: Kurti eased tensions, dialogue on CSM will continue

Researcher at the Center for European Policy Milos Pavkovic assesses, after yesterday's separate meetings between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti with EU officials, that it is quite certain that the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue will continue and he also expects a serious diplomatic battle over the details of the agreement and its implementation, including the Community of Serb Municipalities.

As Pavkovic points out for Kosovo Online, the main impression from yesterday's discussions, based on the statements of the Serbian President, is that a good starting point has been made for the formation of the CSM and that "there is some kind of agreement on a framework agreement for the Community."

"It should be kept in mind that these are meetings on the margins of the European Council summit, and the leaders of the largest EU countries, Italy, France, and Germany, together with representatives of EU institutions, Josep Borrell and Miroslav Lajcak, held separate meetings with Kurti and Vucic to discuss further processes of normalization and de-escalation, as well as ideas for ensuring autonomy for the CSM in Kosovo and Metohija. For now, there is not much information about the content of these discussions, but the most important thing is that it seems that some kind of agreement has been reached regarding the formation of the CSM. President Vucic mentioned that we had a good starting point, albeit without many details," Pavkovic said.

He points out that there have been statements from EU officials in recent days that this involves a kind of modern autonomy for the Serbian community, but without more specific solutions. Given this, Pavkovic expects that in some upcoming meetings in the coming months, there will be a more serious diplomatic battle over the details of the agreement and its implementation.

According to him, the dialogue will definitely continue, and he expects that Vucic and Kurti will meet again soon.

"Expectations are that the dialogue will definitely continue, primarily because of this meeting yesterday and the arrival of the big five, the Quint countries' representatives, on October 21st in Belgrade and Pristina. I expect an invitation in the coming months for a new round of dialogue in which negotiators at a high political level will be directly involved. I believe that this will continue in the near future, and we will move a step further in the normalization process and dialogue," the CEP researcher emphasized.

The dialogue is moving, as he notes, toward the creation of the CSM, and the question of the formation and authorities of the CSM is now under consideration.

Regarding the announcement from the Government of Kosovo that the proposal brought by the Quint countries to Belgrade and Pristina was in principle accepted and which, according to EU spokesperson Peter Stano, includes a draft statute for the CSM, modeled after European examples, Pavkovic says that "Kurti has apparently eased tensions regarding the Community."

"As far as we have heard from Kurti's statements from a few days ago, he has eased the tensions and accepted that kind of modern autonomy. So all eyes are now on the continuation of the dialogue and how what was agreed upon will be operationalized in the coming period," he concluded.

When asked how the CSM might look, he points out that there have been discussions about 15 different European models in recent months and that something from those will definitely be taken as a model.

"Serbia's position is that what was already agreed upon in the Brussels Agreement of 2013 and the Agreement on the Principles of the CSM from 2015 must be respected and implemented. Through that agreement, the basics of how the CSM should function, what it should look like, and what its authorities will be, were defined. There are no specific statements about the proposed agreements, except the statement from the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, who said that all previous agreements should be implemented. So, we can only hope that what was previously agreed and signed will be implemented in this new agreement," Pavkovic said.