Strasbourg, 23/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 22 May, the Serbian and Kosovan prime ministers, Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaçi, reached an agreement on a text for implementing the 19 April agreement (see EUROPE 10831). They “continued their discussions and have agreed a fixed text which they are now consulting upon”, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in a press release. At the end of the consultations, they will have to give - or not - their assent on the text. Ashton stated that the two prime ministers would be in touch with her “by the end of the week”.
Dacic explained that the two parties have obtained a “harmonised text”, while his counterpart Thaçi spoke of an agreement in principle. “We agreed in principle on the steps to follow for implementing the agreement over the course of the next six months”, he said, cited by B92. The details of the implementation will be “settled later in the meetings of expert teams, as well as by the governments of Serbia and Kosovo”, he added. In Dacic's view, “the implementation plan secures the fact that the institutions would not be dismantled before the new ones are created”.
Dacic, Thaçi and Ashton met on 21 May, and again on 22 May, in order to reach an agreement (see EUROPE 10850). Implementation of the agreement could pave the way for a Council decision in June on opening accession negotiations with Serbia and negotiations for a stabilisation and association agreement with Kosovo. (CG/transl.fl)