Zecevic: The US and the EU are beginning to understand that Serbia's position that the CSM should be formed first is justified

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti met on Monday as part of the latest round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and Slobodan Zecevic from the Institute for European Studies says that the framework text of the European Union is now on the table, which contains 11 items and that it is obvious that Serbia did not sign that document and does not agree with some elements, Euronews Serbia reports.

"We are now moving to the second phase, which is the application, that is, the implementation of the agreed elements between Belgrade and Pristina, that is, in which the EU manages to make progress between the two sides," Zecevic said.

He says that if you read the document, you can see that it was made by EU institutions and those member countries that recognize the independence of Kosovo.

"They start from their position - 'two sovereign parties, respecting the UN charter...' all these elements of the agreement speak of the fact that it is about two independent states trying to normalize relations. The document itself did not take into account the fact, first of all, that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, but also that five EU members do not recognize Kosovo's independence. Simply, this part prevailed, i.e. the position of France and Germany, which have already recognized Kosovo's independence, and that is now the entire problem for Serbia," Zecevic said.

He points out that the recognition of Kosovo is not mentioned in the document itself.

"President Vucic is talking about the fact that the article that refers to membership in international organizations - that both sides will not obstruct each other's access to international organizations –is not acceptable to us. The recognition of Kosovo is not mentioned in the document itself, so from that side - It is not disputed. But for us, the treatment we receive is disputed - the same treatment of Serbia, which is a member of the UN and a recognized state, and Kosovo, which is not," Zecevic said.

Finally, in Article 11, it is also stated that both parties undertook to respect the Implementation Roadmap attached to this agreement, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said that at the beginning of the roadmap, regardless of whether it was to the application of the Brussels Agreement or the new European one, the implementation of the CSM had to be always.

"As far as the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities is concerned, there is one good thing for us. I think that now awareness is maturing more and more, we also had an interview with Escobar, the American mediator, who said that we should first form the CSM. So, the US and EU start to understand that our argument is justified - that it is justified that we are asking for the implementation of something that was agreed upon so many years ago and that it is the first step in the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. This is one diplomatic plus and success that we got. The problem is the Albanian side - they will not establish the CSM because that is Kurti's ideological attitude towards it," Zecevic concluded.