Parliament Speaker: Report on Negotiations with Pristina is Sole Agenda Item

Vladimir Orlic (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

Serbia’s Parliament Speaker Vladimir Orlic announced on Feb. 1 that the sole item on the agenda for the National Assembly’s Feb. 2 special session on Kosovo and Metohija will be the Cabinet’s report on the negotiations process with Pristina’s temporary self-government institutions for the period between Sept. 1, 2022 and Jan. 15, 2023 – which has already been submitted to all MPs for review.

In his statement for the Politika daily, Orlic explained that President Aleksandar Vucic will first address the Assembly, after which a public debate will be opened. The debate will last for more than a day, during which Vucic will “answer any and all questions.”

Once the debate is concluded, the MPs will have to either approve or reject the Cabinet’s report. Said report is “technical” in nature because it “merely offers an overview of events,” the speaker said, adding that it does pay special heed to the request for the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo.

According to him, it would be best if the parliamentary debate include any proposals the opposition may have for resolving the Kosovo question. This, he said, would allow the Assembly to discuss the merits as well as possible repercussions and solutions to any potential issues created by these proposals – rather than have the debate devolve into “patriotic and/or offensive one-upmanship.”