Prime Minister Says Expects Nothing Good from Talks in Brussels

Ana Brnabic (BETAPHOTO/SERBIAN GOVERNMENT/SLOBODAN MILJEVIC)

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Aug. 6 that she hoped for “a constructive approach” at a meeting between Belgrade and Pristina set to take place in Brussels, on Aug. 18, when Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and her Kosovo counterpart, Albin Kurti, were expected to meet, adding that “I don’t expect anything good to come of it either.”

“I don’t see any room with Kurti, because he doesn’t want to talk. What also worries me is EU High Representative Josep Borrell saying that they cannot make Pristina do anything. Then what we are talking about, if the EU is the guarantor of the Brussels agreement,” Brnabic said in an interview with the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS).

The prime minister also said that Serbia had been waiting for years for the Community of Serb Municipalities to be formed, “but not in line with the so-called Kosovo constitution, but in a manner agreed upon in Brussels.”

Brnabic quoted U.S. special envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar as saying that the Community had to be established in line with the so-called “laws of Kosovo.” “If that is true, then we really don’t have anything to talk about. The so-called Kosovo constitutional court stated that the way that the Community of Serb Municipalities was arranged in Brussels is contrary to the constitution, which means that what has already been arranged and guaranteed by the EU will have to be adjusted,” Brnabic explained, adding that it would also mean that the Brussels agreement was no longer valid, making the dialogue inconsequential as well.