Zecevic: The authorities in Pristina aim for Serbs to leave Kosovo, which is why they did not form the CSM

The Director of the Institute for European Studies in Belgrade, Slobodan Zecevic, tells Kosovo Online that the authorities in Pristina had no interest in implementing the Brussels Agreement, signed on this day 12 years ago, which obliges them to form the Community of Serb Municipalities, because their goal was for Serbs to gradually leave Kosovo. At the same time, he says that Kosovo Albanians would have had to establish the CSM if the European Union had exerted more pressure on them.

Zecevic points out that the only reason Kosovo Albanians and Pristina did not want to implement the CSM was not merely the simplified narrative that it would be a "Republika Srpska."

"The reason is also that the CSM provides a foundation for Serbs to remain in Kosovo, especially in the north, where Serbs are concentrated, and that was not in their interest. Their goal was for Serbs to gradually leave and move toward Serbia. Albanians in Kosovo simply had no interest and did not want to implement that agreement," Zecevic assesses.

Had the European Union been more forceful and exerted more pressure on the Albanians, he adds, they would have had to consider implementing the Brussels Agreement and establishing the Community of Serb Municipalities.

"Since they saw that the EU did not foresee any strong sanctions against them, they used the situation to achieve their goal. And I believe their long-term political goal is what Franjo Tudjman once said – fewer than three percent of Serbs in Croatia, and in this case, fewer than three or even two percent of Serbs in Kosovo, and thus the problem is solved. So both the Albanians and the European Union are to blame for the failure to implement this agreement, while Serbia bears the least responsibility. It agreed to what was, in fact, a very difficult and unfavorable compromise for it, because it ceded the north of Kosovo to a future Community of Serb Municipalities, which was never formed," our interlocutor emphasizes.

The political analyst from Pristina, Visar Ymeri, recently stated that Kosovo should not fear that establishing the CSM would be destructive for Kosovo, and that the Self-Determination Movement, by opposing the Community, portrayed it as a monster. Zecevic believes that the image of the CSM as a monster cannot be changed while Albin Kurti is in power, as his political program is based on reducing the number of Serbs in Kosovo as much as possible.

"The CSM was deliberately turned into a monster in the Albanian public in order to homogenize the Albanian nation against the Community, and therefore also against the survival of Serbs in Kosovo and against a multiethnic Kosovo. That image could change if Kurti were no longer in power, and if a different government came in that would tell the Albanian people that it is not such a terrible thing in the end. Although even a new government would need to be under some pressure from the European Union to implement the Community of Serb Municipalities so that it could justify it to the Albanian public by saying that the EU is demanding it and that they must comply," Zecevic concludes.