Serbia and Kosovo: a constitution against a "constitution"
April 2 in Brussels was the last round of talks in Belgrade and Pristina with the mediation of the European Union. The parties tried to agree on the future powers of the Serbian municipalities in Kosovo. The meeting ended, so to speak, nothing. After not the 13, not the 14 hours of tense negotiations in Brussels, the parties did not reach a compromise. The stumbling block was obvious to everyone even before the start of negotiations: the sides do not intend to give in to each other, because in any case someone’s constitution will be violated: either a Serb or amateur Kosovo.Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic after meeting with Hashim Thaci saidthat, despite multiple meetings and consultations, the parties could not agree. He added that his delegation was able to preserve unity with regard to the issues raised in the negotiations, and that the current round of dialogue was “difficult and exhausting”.
In an interview with the Belgrade newspaper "Evening news»Mr. Dacic tried to explain state of affairs: “The situation is very difficult. We are in quicksand or quivering swamp. That means you are drowning. Every year more and more, and not grasp for anything. You can use the best arguments. But in the West there is no understanding of them. Thus, the Serbian people are faced with a dilemma whether they should move towards the EU at all. On the other hand, we have no alternative. ” According to him, Serbia has no way to convey its position to "the consciousness of those who today in the EU make decisions about the most important political processes in Europe." The prime minister said: "And our friends from the east are now distant from this political process."
In the EU, Belgrade was given a week to respond to the readiness to accept Pristina’s proposals for a Kosovo settlement. In case of refusal, according to Dacic, Albanians from Kosovo can make an attempt to “integrate” the Serbian north of Kosovo by force.
Six days later, on April 8, the Prime Minister at a specially convened government meeting saidthat the Serbian government cannot accept proposals for a Kosovo settlement, since they do not guarantee the security and protection of human rights in Kosovo: “The Serbian Government cannot accept the proposed principles, which were orally presented to the delegation of Belgrade negotiators because they do not guarantee complete security , survival and protection of Serb rights in Kosovo. Such an agreement cannot be implemented and it does not lead to a final settlement of the problem. ”
What is the way out of the situation seen by the Serbs? The government proposes to continue negotiations with Kosovo Albanians with the mediation of the European Union. Serbian government confirmed commitment to finding a solution to the Kosovo problem through peaceful dialogue. Cabinet members authorized Mr. Dacic to inform the EU about his decision.
On this occasion, Baroness Ashton, head of European diplomacy, spoke immediately. She is explainedthat the European Union does not impose an agreement on a Kosovo settlement for Belgrade and Pristina, but calls on both sides to “make the last effort for this”. However, she regretted that the Serbian authorities rejected the proposal of the Albanians and the European Union.
"This should be an agreement between the two parties, the European Union should not impose it," - said in a statement Ashton, received by RIA "Novosti". Further, the head of EU diplomacy expressed hope that with her mediation in the coming days, the parties would hold another round of negotiations.
As noted by Oleg Ivanov (Kommersant), the rejection of the agreement proposed by the European Union on the normalization of relations with Pristina Belgrade demonstrates its readiness to defend the rights of Kosovo Serbs at the cost of postponing for an indefinite period the date of commencement of negotiations on Serbia’s accession to the European Union. The Belgrade correspondent recalls that the concept of an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo was made public at the end of March 2013 during the seventh round of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. According to the variant proposed by Catherine Ashton, the unification of the Serbian municipalities in the north of Kosovo should have received a constitution and a system of government identical to the Albanian one. Kosovo Serbs were planned to be allowed to deal with local health and education issues and represent their interests in an advisory council to the government in Pristina. The other scenario came from Belgrade: it envisaged the creation of courts and police forces independent of Pristina in the north of Kosovo, as well as giving the local Serbs complete control over internal municipal issues. Belgrade also sought guarantees that there would be no Albanian army in the Serb areas.
There was also a third document, perhaps in some way a compromise. He was invited to sign by Baroness Ashton to the two parties. This document was not made public. However, as explained by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vucic, who was present at the talks in Brussels, some points of the agreement contradicted Belgrade’s proposed plan for creating Serbian autonomy in the north of Kosovo. The Serbs did not agree with the idea of attaching Albanian settlements to predominantly Serbian municipalities and with the presence of Albanian security forces in the places of residence of the Slavs. There was also a lack of clarity with the control over the judicial, educational and health authorities, which also contradicted the interests of the Serbs.
Meanwhile, Serbia wants to continue negotiations, because it wants to join the EU, and to enter there can only be through the settlement of the Kosovo problem - moreover, the settlement is, obviously, according to the Western plan.
Recall that the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared itself independent of Serbia in February 2008 of the year. 99 UN member states from 193 have recognized its independence. As for the European Union, the independence of Kosovo is recognized by twenty-two of the twenty-seven states. Not all NATO member countries recognize Kosovo: 24 from 28. Serbia believes that Kosovo is its territory.
It is also necessary to remind that in the north of Kosovo there live about 130.000 Serbs. The province is under the protectorate of the United Nations.
Not only Serbia, but also Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Greece, Ukraine, and Belarus are not willing to recognize Kosovo as an independent state. Most of the countries of Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia also do not want to recognize the "independent" region.
Peter Iskenderov ("Fund of Strategic Culture") I am convinced that the signing of the agreed documents broke the unprecedented pressure on Serbia from the European Union, as well as the USA.
“... The fact that for the Kosovo-Albanian side seemed to formalize the dissolution of the Pristina-hated Serbian self-government bodies in the northern parts of the region was for Belgrade a Rubicon in the defense of their compatriots. Even formal acceptance of Kosovo’s membership in international organizations would be less of a challenge for Serbia and Serbs than the creation of a formless and powerless “association of Serbian municipalities” subject to Pristina’s orders in North Kosovo ... ”
According to the analyst, pressure techniques were originally developed as a means of "punishing" the Serbs and "enforcing peace." This model, the author believes, worked during the time of Milosevic, but in the conditions of the economic and political crisis in the EU and the change of the ruling team in Belgrade, it was doomed to failure. For the first time in many years, Iskenderov believes, the Serbian leadership has demonstrated its readiness to take the solution of the problems of national statehood into its own hands.
What will Brussels and Washington do? They, the analyst believes, will try to launch a new campaign of pressure on Belgrade. There will be used, in particular, the report of Baroness Ashton on the Serbian Eurozayavka at a meeting of the EU Council, scheduled for April 16. P. Iskanderov argues his opinion by the fact that Kosmet deputy and functionary of the Democratic League of Kosovo Lyutfi Haziri made it clear who should be blamed for breaking the agreement - of course, Serbia, which, according to his calculations, “missed the possibility of reconciliation with Kosovo.
But Love Lyulko (Pravda.ru) writes that the Serbian authorities today surrender one position after another.
“... the territories inhabited by the Serbs (the communities of Kosovska Mitrovica - north of the river Ibar, Leposavic, Zvechan and Zubin Potok) are actually managed from Belgrade, which is funded by local authorities. But, denying the independence of the province of Kosovo and Metohija, Belgrade has recently taken up one position after another, increasingly approaching the implementation of Ahtisaari’s illegitimate plan. Is it not absurd to demand the formation of autonomy within autonomy? It’s not absurd, if you understand that in the subconscious the Serbian leadership has already come to terms with the independence of the region, it remains to find a way to explain this to your people without losing the honor of the uniform. ”
The authorities in Kosovo, according to the analyst, are well aware of this, and therefore do not allow the infringement of "territorial integrity" in accordance with their constitution.
Deputy Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Krstmir Pantic says that the failure of the negotiations in Brussels is the expected outcome, because Pristina is not ready to compromise with the Serbs, and the EU and the US do not want to put pressure on it. And the director of the Serbian Department of Media Relations, Milivoje Mihajlovic, notes: “I spoke with other journalists, Albanians from Kosovo. Most of them said to me: "We would give up, but the Americans would not give." By the way, L. Lyulko notes, Philip Ricoeur, an American diplomat responsible for the Western Balkans, was behind the scenes at a meeting in Brussels.
As for the Department of State policy in the Balkans, its principles were outlined by James George Jatras, head of the American Council on Kosovo. There are only two principles: 1) all claims and interests of the Serbs should be negated; 2) Muslims are always right.
Well, the Serbs from Kosovo generally oppose a compromise that Belgrade would like to accept. Kosovo Serbs, the analyst writes, are now demanding the return of the negotiation process to the UN framework. They declare that they will refuse to fulfill the agreements of Belgrade and Pristina, if they do not meet their interests. Russia calls for such an approach today.
Why Serbia is torn in the EU? After all, the crisis in the yard. It seems to the Serbian government (it used to be exactly the same, for example, to the Greeks, Cypriots and Spaniards) that by entering the EU, the country would receive financial assistance and the right to new technologies. All this will improve the economic situation in the country. And this is unemployment today, reaching in some regions 26%, recession, budget deficit, low per capita income.
Very late thoughts. According to Eurostat, in Greece, which is a member of the EU, unemployment is 26,4%, in Spain - 26,3%, in Portugal - 17,5%, in Slovakia - 14,6%. According to the report of Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Tano Santos and Luis Garicano from The National Bureau of Economic Research, that is, the National Bureau of Economic Research (Massachusetts), the authors compositions on the crisis in the eurozone, thanks to the introduction of the euro, the main economic contradictions of some countries only intensified. In countries such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland, credit “bubbles” quickly inflated, competitiveness decreased, and the external debts of states over the decade of their stay in the eurozone increased by one hundred percent of the gross domestic product.
Does the Serbian government really strive to become an EU member just for the sake of receiving financial assistance? But then the road of the Greek government awaits him. So why?
"Our political elite has grown together with the Brussels and Washington establishment, - characterizes position of the Belgrade political scientist and publicist Slobodan Antonych. - It does not allow itself to even think about some alternative. Any serious state, when it comes to important things, develops the so-called "Plan B". And ours have only one thing in mind - the European Union or death. ” The political analyst explains: “It is regrettable that public opinion in Serbia forms foreign capital. And the fact that we are so corrupt that we do not even notice it. ” He hints at the fact that the owners of the main media in Serbia are large Western media companies, and the most influential NGOs are financed from foreign funds.
Thus, for the time being everything goes to the fact that the Western scenario of the resolution of the Kosovo issue will be implemented: the structures of the EU and the US will put pressure on Serbia in a cleverly indirect way - by putting pressure on Kosovo, avoiding any compromises between the parties. The Serbian government, eager to join the European Union and “receive financial assistance” by making decisive statements about the unacceptability of the agreements, will eventually accept an agreement that is not very different from the previous ones that were rejected. Diplomatic delay will allow the weak Belgrade to keep at least part of the political face. This is not to say that Baroness Ashton does not understand this. He understands perfectly well - that is why he prepares texts, one after another, which are somehow hidden from the public.
Observed and commented on Oleg Chuvakin
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- especially for topwar.ru
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