Double Majority Principle as Possible Compromise on Issue of Community of Serb Municipalities

Aleksandar Vucic, Albin Kurti (FOTO: European Council/Mario Salerno)

EU-mediated negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina on normalizing relations continued in Brussels this week after a several-month-long break due to parliamentary elections in Kosovo. One of the key issues in the next several rounds of dialogue between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti will be the creation of a Community of Serb Municipalities, which Belgrade has been insisting on. Currently there is no solution on the horizon as both sides stick firmly to their guns.

The creation of the Community of Serb Municipalities remains for now the key demand of the Serbian side in the dialogue for normalizing relations with Pristina. On the other side, Premier Kurti has been saying there will be no monoethnic community of municipalities in Kosovo, and that the integration of all citizens is necessary regardless of their ethnicity. Still, Serbia insists that the monoethnic Community has to be created and vested with executive powers. The international community, i.e. the EU and U.S. support its formation, but have said that the two sides need to agree on modalities. This was confirmed during a visit by EU special envoy for the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade Miroslav Lajcak and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of European and Eurasian affairs Matthew Palmer to Kosovo last week.