Belgrade-Pristina talks agenda still unknown
Head of Belgrade's Kosovo talks team Borko Stefanovic says the topics for the negotiations were "still under review", but Serbia's MFA political director said that he expected the dialogue to yield results quickly after its start.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Tuesday, March 01, 2011
"The most important thing for us are the problems Serbs in Kosovo face and we shall try to settle those immediately, while the sovereignty issues will be discussed in the later stages," Stefanovic noted.
The concept of the talks will be completely different from the previous negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, because those talks had only one topic, which in turn had the potential to make either side abandon the dialogue.
"We have not entered the process to play a game of poker and have a winner and a loser, but to find answers to the people's problems," he pointed out. The negotiations should not be approached with suspicions of backstage dealings and deception, Stefanovic argued.
According to him, the EU, as the mediator, will have a status-neutral role and no ultimatums will be imposed on either side.
The Belgrade team will adhere to the Constitution and try to use a constructive approach to improve the lives of Kosovo residents, which should not be interpreted as willingness to make concessions, Stefanovic noted.
He expects certain parts of both communities to condemn the negotiations, but nevertheless feels that they are needed for the benefit of the people and both Serbs' and Kosovo Albanians' European future.
Both sides tend to look back to the past, but the talks are there to help them overcome that, he concluded.
The negotiations will be a sobering event for both sides and they should refrain from past rhetoric, he added.
"Belgrade has learned its lessons from various bad experiences in the past, and that is our message to Priština, learn your lessons, show maturity," he stressed. Pristina could show its democratic maturity by prosecuting those responsible for war crimes against ethnic non-Albanians, he explained.
The issue of the predominantly Serb populated northern Kosovo will definitely appear on the agenda, but the solution cannot be the same as in other parts of Kosovo, since the Serb population in the north is the most united. It is wrong to think that all of the problems there could be settled over night by establishing central government institutions, Stefanovic stated.
