Organization: Shift Focus Away From Unproductive Belgrade-Pristina Talks

Dialogue Belgrade - Pristina (BETAPHOTO/European Council/Mario Salerno/DS)

The Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI) assessed on Jan. 4 that, instead of laying emhpasis on the unproductive negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, focus should be moved onto the implementation of laws that guarantee autonomy for the Serb community in Kosovo.

"The Serb Ticket, as a dominant political factor in the Serb community, should return to the institutions of Kosovo and initiate the forming of the Community of Serb Municipalities, in keeping with the Law on local self-administration and the Law on inter-municipal cooperation, which provide the legal basis for its forming," BIRODI stated in an analysis.

The organization stated that these two laws represented the legal basis for implementing the Brussels Agreement and were built into it, and that Kosovo's Constitutional Court had never found them unconstitutional. "The implementation of these two laws would enable the constitutionally and legally guaranteed level of autonomy for the Serb community in Kosovo. That would also be one of the conditions for Kosovo's EU membership within chapters 23, 24 and 35," the analysis reads.

It was also assessed that the Kosovo government should act in keeping with these laws and enable the Serb community's autonomy in the fields of security, health, education, culture and religious heritage, and cooperation of the majority Serb municipalities with the municipalities and institutions in Serbia.