Pavkovic: Victory of Serbs in local elections not a guarantee that Pristina will accept formation of the CSM

Milos Pavkovic, Strategic Director at the Center for European Policies, stated that the 2015 agreement between Belgrade and Pristina defined the key principles of the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM), but that a victory of Serbs in the upcoming local elections in northern Kosovo still “does not guarantee” that Pristina will accept its implementation.

Under EU auspices, representatives of Belgrade and Pristina signed in Brussels, on this day ten years ago, the plan for implementing the agreement on the normalization of relations.

Pavkovic points out that this was a follow-up to what had been agreed two years earlier, with the first Brussels Agreement.

“The 2015 agreement, which in fact defined the key principles and elements of the Community of Serb Municipalities, was an upgrade of the 2013 Brussels Agreement, with clearly defined principles and elements that the Community should contain, such as the main bodies: president, vice president, assembly, council... It was a kind of elaboration of how the Community should look in practice,” Pavkovic told Kosovo Online.

He stresses there are two main reasons why the CSM has not been established to this day.

“The key reason is the Constitutional Court of Kosovo’s assessment of this agreement’s constitutionality. I remind you that in 2016 it ruled that parts of the 2015 agreement were not in line with the Constitution. That served as an excuse for all previous governments of Kosovo to completely set aside the establishment of the CSM, even though the Constitutional Court did not say that the CSM as such was unconstitutional, but only parts of that specific agreement,” Pavkovic explained.

As the second reason for the CSM not being formed, he cites the “overall political context.”

“Relations between Belgrade and Pristina are at their lowest point since 1999. There is also a complete lack of interest by Albin Kurti’s government to deal with the issue of forming the CSM, and, on the other hand, a lack of political will or the inability of the EU, as guarantor of the 2013, 2015, and 2023 agreements, to impose their implementation,” he specified.

Pavkovic emphasizes that much has changed regarding the CSM over these ten years.

He clarifies that the most recent, Ohrid Agreement,does not explicitly mention the CSM but “refers to all previous agreements and calls for an appropriate level of self-management for Serbs in Kosovo.”

As the most significant change, he cites the European draft Statute for the CSM from 2023.

“Since Belgrade and Pristina could not reach an agreement, the EU took a proactive role and presented a concrete draft Statute that should be adopted by the Kosovo Assembly. However, that Statute has never been published, so it is not available to the public, nor has the Government of Kosovo ever been ready to include it in a serious discussion and put it to a vote. So, in a way, it remains an enigma,” Pavkovic stressed.

What is not an enigma, he adds, is that this European draft represents “a serious concretization of all previous agreements.”

“It clearly puts on paper the functions and powers of the CSM and its relationship with the central government, as well as the entire structure of the CSM’s administration.”

Pavkovic is also convinced that a change of local authorities, especially in the four northern municipalities of Kosovo, could influence the “revival” of the issue and create new pressure for the establishment of the CSM.

“Since the Serbian community will participate in the elections, primarily the Serb List, but also others, I believe that if new local authorities are formed, especially in the four northern municipalities, they will insist on the formation of the CSM and exert pressure on the government in Pristina and the international community,” Pavkovic noted.

However, he adds, even that would be “no guarantee.”

“We can expect stronger insistence and lobbying, but that is not a guarantee that the CSM will be formed, because it will primarily depend on who forms the central government and how interested the new government will be in moving forward with the process of creating the CSM. And of course, it also depends on how willing the international community will be to pressure the government in Pristina to start implementation,” Pavkovic said.