Sljuka: Kosovo government aware that implementation of the laws on foreigners and vehicles will create problems for the Serbian community

Associate of the NGO New Social Initiative Aleksandar Sljuka does not expect new postponements of the implementation of the laws on foreigners and vehicles because, as he points out, that would represent a kind of defeat for the Kosovo government. Nevertheless, he believes that this issue should be resolved within the framework of the dialogue, since it affects many categories of people.

A new postponement, Sljuka notes, would be grounds for criticism from the political opponents of the authorities in Kosovo.

“I am not sure how ready the Kosovo government is to back down again, in the sense of saying that it will be postponed for an indefinite period until all the concerns of the Serbian community are resolved, because that would simply be a defeat for them. They have already postponed it twice and that would be a defeat for them in the context that their political opponents could say that they are now giving up, that what they used to say about not tolerating the dictate of foreigners is now happening in practice and that they are yielding to the Serbian community, which was not their principle of work and action,” Sljuka told Kosovo Online.

As he stated, the issues covered by these laws are structural problems that cannot simply be resolved, so he sees no other solution except to postpone their implementation for an indefinite period.

“That is why many say that this is perhaps an even more significant or dramatic situation than the one when the dinar was abolished. This affects many people and in different ways, some in the context of the implementation of both laws, some in the context of just one law. There are many individual cases, and these are not problems that can be solved with a single decision, for example by saying we will tolerate one thing and that will solve all the problems. It is not like that, because these are specific laws, they affect different people in different aspects and that leads to thousands and thousands of people having different problems that will have to be addressed separately,” our interlocutor added.

Because of all this, he emphasized, it is not realistic to expect that the Kosovo authorities will postpone the implementation of the laws, or at least not for a long period.

“I think they will proceed with implementation and that the consequences of that implementation will be seen among a certain group of citizens, those who do not manage in some way to adapt to it. We have a situation where a dialogue is being conducted between Belgrade and Pristina, where certain issues still have not been addressed. And the Kosovo government wants to act as if it has the absolute right to fully implement its laws, to behave like any other state in terms of the Law on Foreigners. It is similar to some European practices, however the situation in Kosovo, the fact that we have a dialogue, that we have many unresolved issues, including in the very context of the civil registry, birth records, people who were unable to obtain documents for various reasons, when we have all those unresolved issues, it is not appropriate to implement such a law,” Sljuka said.

According to him, the Kosovo government is aware of the problems the Serbian community will face after the implementation of these laws.

“I believe that the Kosovo government is aware that the implementation of these laws will put many people in a difficult position. I think they were aware, when they decided on full implementation, that it would negatively affect the Serbian community, even in the context of discussions about the integration of the education and healthcare systems. These are various processes that need to be resolved through dialogue and through the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities. They are trying to do all of that unilaterally,” Sljuka concluded.