Kosovo Minister: No response of Management Team to invitation

NEWS 27.04.202320:24
ZSO, Kosovo
N1/arhiva

Kosovo Minister of Local Government Administration Elbert Krasniqi said that the Management team tasked with drafting the Statute of the Community of Serb Municipalities (CSM) did not respond to his invitation to a meeting.

The Minister said that, under a 2020 decision, the Management Team is to inform the Kosovo Local Government Administration Minister on its activities.

Krasniqi said he invited the Management team to a meeting on April 18 but that there was no response from any of the team members.

The Management Team is envisaged by the 2013 Agreement on normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia and is tasked with drafting the Statute of the future Community of Serb Municipalities. It comprises representatives of four municipalities in the north of Kosovo.

The Management Team is to present the Draft CSM Statute on May 2 in Brussels within the high-level political dialogue facilitated by the European Union (EU) and led by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The CSM has been a stumbling block in Kosovo-Serbia relations for a decade. It was agreed in 2013, while the principles were defined two years later. However, in 2015 Kosovo’s Constitutional Court ruled that some of the principles are in violation of Kosovo law, but that they can be harmonized.

The formation of the CSM is Serbia’s main requirement for the implementation of the agreements reached in Brussels and Ohrid in February and March this year.