Surlic: CSM issue without which the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue cannot continue

The Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM) is an issue without which the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina cannot continue, but unfortunately, it is being "sold as a product" with the aim of pacifying Belgrade on the one hand and having no substance on the other, Stefan Surlic said, an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, as reported by RTV.

Surlic said in an interview with Tanjug that European officials did not see a real possibility for the Serbian community to achieve autonomy in Kosovo through the CSM but saw it only as a topic that would persuade Belgrade to accept "painful compromises" that would follow the eventual formation of the CSM.

"I hope that the meeting on May 2 will really commit Pristina, with even some possibility of sanctions against the authorities in Pristina, to taking any concrete steps towards the formation of the CSM. And only if we have some results regarding the CSM, then it can be a prelude to the reorganization of elections in northern Kosovo, hopefully this year or at the beginning of next, but this political situation in northern Kosovo is not sustainable," Surlic said.

He stated that a very bad practice was being repeated on the ground, which was that agreements were reached in Brussels without having any influence on changing the situation on the ground and that something was being "supposedly" solved so that it would never be solved.

"We can only hope for a more positive scenario because what is the alternative - an open ethnic conflict in Kosovo, and then, of course, an opportunity for the authorities in Pristina to say that Serbia is a 'little Russia' that has been aiming to start a war and a new Serbian-Albanian conflict," Surlic said.

He added that Pristina constantly stated publicly that what was written in the Brussels Agreement would not be achieved and that the Community would only be a "loose alliance" and cooperation at the level of municipalities within the existing powers.

"This recent development with the Council of Europe is heading in that direction, and we could unofficially hear from European and American representatives that this time Kosovo's path to membership in Europe will appease Pristina to finally form the CSM that was promised and signed ten years ago. The last local elections were an absolutely wrong move by international actors because they gave the green light to the authorities in Pristina to hold onto power without meeting the necessary conditions," Surlic said.

Surlic expressed the stance that Serbs cannot return to institutions and that everything cannot "function normally" when there is no indication of the formation of the CSM.

"Dealing with this topic, I would understand if at least one symbolic move was made by the authorities in Pristina, if they met with representatives of Serbs, talked, and showed willingness to come to a community of municipalities that will be in line with the demands of the Serbian community living in Kosovo through concrete steps. However, this did not happen, and of course, there was no reason for Serbs to return to institutions because they do not see any change in the behavior of the authorities in Pristina," Surlic said.

According to Surlic, the continuation of the "aggressive policy" heralds something that has been hinted at for years, namely, as he said, to seize an opportunity and unite North and South Mitrovica.

"This means an ethnic engineering, given that southern Mitrovica is significantly more populous, so that northern Mitrovica, with the Serbian majority, falls completely under the control of the Albanian majority, supposedly under the pretext of uniting one unified city, its northern and southern parts," Surlic concluded.