The EU mediator for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajčak, announced that he met with representatives of the National Convention on the European Union yesterday in Brussels. However, he failed to specify that it was the National Convention of Serbia, nor that the delegation included Serbs from Kosovo, triggering a harsh reaction from Pristina.
“Very useful meeting with NCEU representatives in Brussels today. It always helps to hear voices from the ground,” Lajčak said on X.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, reacted harshly to Lajčak’s statement, using the same social network.
Bislimi criticized Miroslav Lajčak, stating that he met with representatives of the NCEU a few hours before regarding the report on progress in the negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, but that he did not mention that it was the NCEU from Serbia.
Moreover, he claimed that the delegation that met with Lajčak is mainly made up of Serbian NGOs from Kosovo, which reportedly “actively and openly advocate against the integration of Serbs” into Kosovo institutions.
„Mr. Lajcak should explain to us whether in his narrative, Serb NGOs from Kosovo are part of NCEU Serbia and whether NCEU Serbia fall under his umbrella. Another strong demonstration of Mr. Lajcak’s ‘fair’ and ‘neutral’ approach to parties in the normalization process,“ said Bislimi.
1/3 EUSR Lajcak posted from a meeting held with NCEU, hours before reporting to PSC on the normalization dialogue between Kosova and Serbia, but decided not to mention that it is about NCEU in Serbia.https://t.co/PArrbcpyQ7
— Besnik Bislimi (@BislimiBesnik) February 14, 2024
Self-determination: Lajčak’s approach is unfair and not neutral
Self-Determination reacted similarly, publishing Bislimi’s message on the networks through an infographic. The party also said that Lajčak applied an „unfair“ and „non-neutral“ approach to the normalization process.
„Deputy Prime Minister Bislimi said that Lajčak did not mention that the delegation he met with mainly included representatives of Serbian non-governmental organizations from Kosovo, which openly try and advocate against the integration of Serbian citizens into the economic and social life of Kosovo.“
Members of the Serbian Working Group of the National Convention on the EU for Chapter 35 and a delegation of Serbs from Kosovo are staying in Brussels this week.
Apart from the meeting with Miroslav Lajčak, they also spoke with other EU officials – members of the European Parliament, representatives of the European Commission and member states, as well as with other officials.
In addition to the representatives from Belgrade, the delegation also includes a smaller group of Serbs from Kosovo: the director of the New Social Initiative, Jovana Radosavljević, the director of Radio and Television Kim, Isak Vorgučić, the director of the NGO „Aktiv“, Miodrag Milićević, and the deputy of the Kosovo Ombudsman, Srđan Sentić.
Radosavljević: Bislimi’s well-known pressure on the civil society and the media
The comments of Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi represent an already-established pattern of pressure on civil society and the media, Jovana Radosavljević told KoSSev from Brussels.
„Obviously, our understandings of the term ‘integration’ differ,“ she added.
„We understand it in the context of the sustainable integration of people through dialogue, respect for agreements, as well as through the existing mechanisms for the protection of the Serbian community, while the representatives of this government understand it primarily as the integration of territory, not people – ignoring not only the self-government mechanisms of the Kosovo Serbs resulting from the dialogue that concern the ASM, the police and the judiciary, but even ignore the protection mechanisms that are woven into the Constitution of Kosovo, which guarantees multi-ethnic institutions through a system of equal representation of all communities at all levels,“ stated Radosavljević from Brussels.
She called for sustainable integration – not the integration of the territory and the dominance of the majority community, which is what is being advocated by the Kosovo government.
Read more in a separate article.
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