Guests N1 about Kosovo, Srebrenica and the EU

“I wouldn’t say that it is certain that Kosovo will be admitted to the Council of Europe, especially if it does nothing in terms of fulfilling its obligations under the agreement,” Dragiša Mijačić, coordinator of the National Convention for Chapter 35, told N1. Maja Bjeloš from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy he says, commenting on the resolution on Srebrenica, that Vučić “experiences that document very personally” and that he “has a good reason for it”.

What does the decision to include the Agreement from Ohrid and before that from Brussels, the so-called Agreement on the Road to Normalization of Relations between Kosovo and Serbia, to the negotiation chapter 35 represent for Serbia’s European path? What is the current international position of our country in light of the certain admission of Kosovo to the Council of Europe and the passing of the resolution on Srebrenica in the UN General Assembly?

Before commenting on the session of the UN Security Council, Mijačić reminded that today the European Parliament adopted the report on visa liberalization for Kosovo Serbs and said that this is very good news.

“Coordinating Administration passport holders no longer need to travel with visas. This is great news for all citizens of Serbia from the area of ​​Kosovo and Metohija. Hence, in the sea of ​​bad news, one great news,” he said.

It remains, he adds, for the European Council to make a decision, and from July 1, citizens can travel to the EU.

However, it is possible for that path to be – in one direction.

“As many problems as there are, it can really be a one-way trip… But it is certainly very good news,” Mijačić said.

According to his words, the UN Security Council is no longer a format and a place where issues of importance, Kosovo or dialogue, are discussed.

“But it is good that Resolution 1244 and the problems of the Serbian community in Kosovo and problems in the dialogue are highlighted somewhere,” he added.

At yesterday’s session of the UN Security Council, he says, the 1999 bombing and whether it was justified were more topics than what happened in the previous six months in Kosovo.

Mijačić assesses the performance of the President of Serbia at the UN Security Council as not so good.

“Emotions can go in one direction or another.” My personal opinion is that it could have been better and more meaningful than the Serbian delegation. “Vučić used the opportunity to enter into debates and some discussions, I think that this kind of behavior could have been avoided, bearing in mind what is happening in the UNSC and in the Council of Europe,” Mijačić said.

As he said, if you are looking for allies for your politics, you cannot behave the way Vučić behaved.

Maja Bjeloš, however, believes that the UN is a place where important issues are discussed – peace, war or topics like genocide.

Speaking about the resolution on Srebrenica, he says that its adoption is expected at the beginning of May, as well as that Serbian officials Ivica Dacic and Aleksandar Vucic misrepresented what the proposal for that resolution was about.

“The resolution calls to recognize the genocide in Srebrenica and to declare July 11 as an international day not only of remembrance, but also of reflection on that crime.” However, it is a false and wrong interpretation by our politicians that the resolution condemns the Serbian people. That is not what the content of the resolution itself is. It does not assign collective responsibility, but it calls for civilians to be protected in a conflict, because the state has an obligation to punish those who committed crimes, to condemn the celebration of individuals who committed war crimes with a resolution. As well as the fact that states are obliged to preserve historical facts in order to prevent the revision or repetition of such crimes,” Bjeloš emphasized.

But, as she said, Vučić “experiences this resolution very personally”.

“And there is a good reason for that, because the resolution speaks about what Vučić is as a character and work.” Serbia is led by a man who incited crimes against Muslims and was a member of a party that armed Serbs and thereby incited crimes. And today we have a government that denies the crime in Srebrenica and celebrates Ratko Mladić as a hero,” Bjeloš said.

Inserting obligations from the Ohrid Agreement into Chapter 35 within the European integration of Serbia is not a precedent for Mijačić.

“I don’t see that it is a precedent, it is something that was announced in the Ohrid Agreement.” In the annex to that agreement, it is stated as point 3 that there will be an update of Chapter 35 when it comes to Serbia and the insertion of obligations into that chapter in order to further measure Serbia’s path towards European integration,” said Mijačić.

When asked whether Vučić’s verbal consent is the same as a signature, he says:

“Right after that Ohrid, Vučić talked about the fact that the agreement from Brussels and the annex from Ohrid will be included in Chapter 35. He said that he does not see any problem in that, that we will implement everything.” Then a situation happened with Ohrid and with Serbia that Pristina did not accede to the formation of the ZSO, and on the other hand, the international community initiated the process of Kosovo’s accession to the Council of Europe, and somewhere that frustrated Serbia and led it to be against updating Chapter 35,” he explained.

The formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities (CMU) has been an obligation of Pristina for 11 years.

“With this decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo on banning the use of dinars, everything has stopped. That issue of the ZSO statute came to the fore. The draft of that statute has not been made public, but it is roughly known, it remains for the Kosovo side to declare itself on that document, for the government to adopt it, and for the formal formation of the ZSO to begin. However, the events on the ground and all that was caused by the dinar ban and Dora Bakojani’s report… that ZSO is no longer a condition for Kosovo’s entry into the SE,” Mijačić said.

What is said to be little talked about is that Dora Bakojani’s report on Kosovo’s entry into the Council of Europe is just one step.

“The Committee of Ministers will ultimately decide on the basis of political views, for some of the members the condition still remains the ZSO, we will see that in the next 10 days or so, I would not say that it is certain that Kosovo will be admitted to the CE, especially if nothing don’t do it,” emphasized Mijačić.

“Serbia is an isolated country”

Mijačić also says that Serbia’s international position is complicated.

“Somewhere it was influenced by the Pristina side, and somewhere the Serbian politics itself became complacent,” he says.

Maja Bjeloš sees Serbia as an isolated country.

“And for a long time, despite attempts to create the illusion that the president of Serbia has good relations with the officials of important countries in Europe.” But Serbia has been isolated for a long time, we are outside the EU and we are not making any effort to move forward on that path,” she said.

Bjeloš believes that the government in Serbia is “waiting for the presidential elections in the USA”.

“Expecting that maybe Trump will come to power, thinking that it will change not only the international position of Serbia, but also affect the solution of the Kosovo problem,” she added.