It is a real tragedy of our society that the same people who led to the fact that Kosovo is not de facto part of the constitutional order of Serbia for almost 25 years, are today leading negotiations about its future and ours. The president negotiated for almost ten years, and then informed about the fact that he negotiated in such a way that the public knew and understood little. He behaved similarly in the National Assembly, where he never actually gave an account to the MPs about the results of his negotiations. It is the same this time. From his address after the last negotiations in Brussels, we are not sure what exactly he accepted. In fact, it seems that the president is still buying time, and we fear that he is buying time for himself personally, and not for Serbia to get a better proposal, because as time goes on, Serbia gets worse and worse proposals, and that is certainly the merit of the negotiators. For such negotiations, which he tore away from the institutions, Aleksandar Vučić will never have our support, but can only expect to be called to account.

“It is a real tragedy of our society that the same people who led to the fact that Kosovo is not de facto part of the constitutional order of Serbia for almost 25 years, are today leading negotiations about its future and ours.”

If it is approached with a sincere desire to finally start on the path to peaceful coexistence of Serbs and Albanians and if the interests of the people living in Kosovo, both Serbs and Albanians, are put first, then the EU and US proposal is an acceptable starting point. This first step on the long road of reconciliation and the achievement of preconditions for the peaceful coexistence of Serbs and Albanians in this region, which is still ahead of us, should more clearly recognize the demand for the essential autonomy of the Serbian community. It is necessary to form the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM) with executive powers in the fields of education, health, social protection, culture, urban and rural planning, local economy and local democracy, with the right to special ties with Serbia, as well as guarantees for its security. There is still room for this through the agreement on the road map for the implementation of the agreement, although we express our fear that neither side will approach it honestly – because the Kosovo public is not ready to accept the Community of Serb Municipalities, just as the Serbian public has not been presented with exactly how Serbia see the functioning of the CSM.

There is no doubt that the entire region needs a lot of financial support and that the joint projects mentioned in the agreement could be an important bridge for establishing cooperation. But experience shows us that Aleksandar Vučić is ready to turn the implementation negotiations in the direction of trade for his own interests, in order to manipulate the public and stay in power as long as possible.

Finally, this proposal lacks what could be the first point of departure on which both Serbs and Albanians would agree: a more credible perspective of membership in the European Union for the entire region, that would be achievable in the short term so that the EU stands behind the political process of reconciliation between the two nations and the improvement of people’s lives.

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