“Five years, 60 months – there is no Zajednica yet,” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said today.
Kurti made the remark in response to journalists’ questions during the inauguration of the Vushtri/Vucitrn – Pristina road section, commenting on opposition claims that potential concessions in the Law on Foreigners could pave the way for the formation of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities (ASM).
“Over these five years as prime minister, opposition representatives have often said ‘he will create the Association this month,’ or ‘next month,’ but as you know, five years – 60 months – there is still no Zajednica,” Kurti emphasized, according to media reports from Pristina.
He stressed that such accusations are unfounded. The government operates within a democratic system, focusing on the security and well-being of all citizens, and decisions are made “without ethnic discrimination.”
“Jo Zajednica”
The slogan “Jo Zajednica” (“No Association”) was popularized by the former opposition activist movement Vetëvendosje shortly after the adoption of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. It served as a critique of the planned formation of the ZSO, which under the agreement was supposed to encompass municipalities with a Serb majority—a key obligation for Pristina.
Vetëvendosje deliberately used the term “Zajednica” in Serbian in its propaganda and public appearances to stigmatize the ZSO, presenting it as a compromise that, according to their interpretation, undermines Kosovo’s sovereignty and imposes unilateral international obligations. This linguistic insistence functioned as a political tool to mobilize public opinion.
In practice, this position triggered one of the most intense waves of activism and protests in Pristina and in the Kosovo Assembly in 2015. MPs and activists organized mass demonstrations, blocked parliamentary galleries, and repeatedly deployed tear gas inside the assembly to disrupt sessions discussing laws related to Brussels Agreement implementation. On the streets of Pristina, protests escalated into clashes with police, who repeatedly used tear gas and other measures to disperse crowds.
Meanwhile, during the Brussels Dialogue, the European Union prepared a draft statute for the ZSO in 2023 to assist Kosovo authorities in its formation. The first obstacle encountered was the decision to submit the draft to the Constitutional Court for review. Despite ongoing demands and pressure from Kosovo’s international partners, this has yet to happen. At the same time, the European path agreement for the normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations, including the so-called Ohrid Implementation Annex, obliged Kosovo to initiate a self-managment process for the Serb community—but the term “Association” is not mentioned in this annex.
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