Surlic: Pristina is not ready to form the Community of Serb Municipalities

Stefan Surlic, an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, believes that Pristina is not prepared to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities and that there is no sign of any steps taken by the Kosovo side that would lead to a de-escalation of the situation in the north, as reported by Blic.

"Moreover, we don't see any steps toward easing tensions; on the contrary, all these issues, from land expropriation to illegal mayors, problems with medicines, transportation, and everything else, persist without any desire to deeply and permanently resolve them," Surlic stated to Tanjug.

He added that the primary goal, especially for those leading the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, was to create conditions for Serbs from the north to return to institutions, even though it seemed like an unattainable goal. As he said, this is mainly because Pristina has not taken any steps that would lead to stabilizing the situation on the ground and would win the trust of Serbs, creating a minimum level of confidence that they can participate in institutions again and that these institutions genuinely have the authority to protect their special rights.

Surlic believes that the US administration is primarily focused on calming the situation, that at the moment, escalating conflicts is not in their interest, and that they have set their red lines, but, as he says, there is no readiness for more severe sanctions against the authorities in Pristina.

"They have said that if there is no progress, Pristina will suffer consequences, but we still do not see any kind of stricter US policy towards Albin Kurti's government. Therefore, everything happening in the north appears to be a form of conflict management with limited possibilities," Surlic explained.