Surlic: The idea of limiting the CSM to the north is a trial balloon, reducing its competences would render it meaningless

Stefan Surlic, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, believes that floating in public the idea of a Community of Serb Municipalities that would be limited to four municipalities in the north, instead of, as envisaged by existing agreements, also including other Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo, is a trial balloon and that such a proposal is unacceptable for Belgrade.

Surlic recalls that the Community of Serb Municipalities has already been defined through a statute that the European Union provided to Pristina and instructed it to submit to the Constitutional Court in order to unblock the process and begin the formation of the CSM.

Namely, DPK MP Xhavit Haliti stated that a possible change in positions on the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities could lead to it being limited to four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, instead of covering the entire territory, which he said would be the first easing step, while the second would be for the Community to have no executive powers.

“Self-Determination and Albin Kurti have already repeatedly stated that they will not form the CSM at any cost, so I see this as an attempt by another political option to offer a revision of some kind of CSM, because it is clear that the international community is not giving up on it being formed sooner or later, since its formation is the only sign that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will be unblocked,” Surlic says.

He also assesses that the idea of reducing the Community’s envisaged competences is unrealistic.

“That runs counter to the basic ideas, namely that the majority of Serbs should have a certain form of security through the autonomy that the Community of Serb Municipalities would provide. Second, the CSM already has four clearly defined spheres that are of vital importance to the Serb community, and we could not speak of any reduction in the importance of that Community in the future, because then it would make no sense. What is Pristina’s idea is that the Community and its formation should be approached only when it is completely stripped of meaning and when it has no real significance for the Serb community in Kosovo,” our interlocutor believes.

The ideas Haliti speaks about, he points out, are unacceptable for Belgrade, because the only things that can be on the table are those agreed within the framework of the dialogue led by Brussels.

“In this case, that topic has already been concluded by Belgrade agreeing to the text of the CSM statute. That is the European proposal that is on the table, and now it is up to the Pristina government to unblock the process by having the Constitutional Court give an assessment of the constitutionality of the CSM statute,” Surlic says.

He recalls earlier statements by Albin Kurti that everything must first be integrated into the Kosovo system, including education and healthcare, and that full loyalty to Pristina’s institutions must be demonstrated, and only then should there be talk of the Community of Serb Municipalities, that is, for it to be some kind of association at the level of the non-governmental sector. This, however, he points out, is unacceptable for the Serb community, especially when it comes to spheres of vital importance, namely education and healthcare.

“I believe that for them any form of the Community of Serb Municipalities that would have real powers is unacceptable, and that this policy will not change as long as there is no decisive international pressure for something to change fundamentally and perhaps for Pristina to face much greater consequences and sanctions if it does not accept something like that,” Surlic concludes.