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Escobar: We should have insisted more on the implementation of the Association

2024-05-17 12:29:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Escobar: We should have insisted more on the implementation of the Association

Gabriel Escobar

Washington's special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said that it was necessary to insist more on the implementation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, than on the rapprochement of Kosovo and Serbia.

"We should have insisted more on the implementation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, instead of facilitating the rapprochement of both sides because in some cases we have noticed that there was a will on both sides", said Escobar in an interview for Center for Europe in the Atlantic Council.

Asked if prioritizing the Association has been the most effective strategy, Escobar said that this issue of implementing the Association is the most difficult.

"Therefore, it was important for Kosovo to signal its willingness to address the issue of minorities, the Serbian minority within its borders. This is important," he said.

Kosovo and Serbia have reached agreements on the Association in 2013 and 2015, under the mediation of the European Union.

Likewise, last year the parties reached an agreement on the path towards the normalization of relations, which foresees the provision of an appropriate level of self-management for the Serbian community in Kosovo. Brussels has said that self-management means Association.

The USA and the EU have constantly insisted that Kosovo establish the Association.

Escobar said that the implementation of the Association is key in Kosovo's path towards the EU and for securing new recognitions.

"From the American perspective, because the European path has involved parts of this Association at every step, we believe that by accepting the European proposal, through the European process that is dialogue, and the agreement that is guaranteed by the EU, will it gave the American side an opportunity to lobby the European countries, to say that Kosovo has done everything that Europe has asked, therefore there are reasons for new recognition. Without this, let's say, we didn't have the material to do such a thing," he said.

On May 16, through a letter sent to the Council of Europe, Kosovo said that it promises to draw up a draft statute for the Association and send it to the Constitutional Court for interpretation by the end of May. With this pledge, Kosovo said it fulfilled the condition set by some members of the Council of Europe and Prishtina asked to become a member of this European organization for human rights.

However, Germany, one of the countries that has set the condition for Kosovo in CoE, said that it considers it a "concrete step" only when Kosovo submits the draft statute for the Association to the Constitutional Court.

So far, several draft statutes for the Association have been presented, including one from the EU in October last year.

But, in the letter sent to the Council of Europe, Kosovo said that it intends to draw up its own draft, being inspired by the draft presented by the German organization Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

At the end of January 2023, FES published a draft statute for the establishment of the Association in accordance with the Constitution and legal system of Kosovo, as the Government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti insists./ REL