Brussels, 30/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 29 June, the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo, Aleksandar Vucic and Isa Mustafa respectively, did not manage to reach an agreement on the principles enabling the creation of an association/community of municipalities with Serb majority in Kosovo, despite negotiations lasting 16 hours (see EUROPE 11342).
“We finalised the text of two agreements (…) A final political agreement was nevertheless not reached”, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on the night of 29-30 June. “We will now consider the future steps”, she announced.
According to Vucic, the two parties were near an agreement on the association of municipalities (ZSO) but the Kosovans reportedly rejected it due to the powers that would be granted to the association. “The Pristina delegation did not even agree to give the ZSO powers that the municipalities already have in Kosovo - that is, powers in the area of urban planning, health and economic development”, he said, as quoted by Balkans media. The Serbs “wanted executive powers for the ZSO”, competences that are “against our law and our constitution”, Mustafa said.
Progress was also made in the area of telecommunications, with an agreement on the international dialling code for Kosovo. According to Mustafa, the agreement on telecommunications was not signed because “the international community wants the four themes to be signed in a single package”. By contrast, there was reportedly almost no progress on energy or the Kosovska Mitrovica bridge.
No date has yet been announced for another meeting. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)