Vucic: Kurti Wanted Three New Pillars for Community of Serb Municipalities, We Prevailed with Earlier Deal

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on March 19 that Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti had asked that the Community of Serb Municipalities be based on three pillars unacceptable to Belgrade during talks at Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia, but that he managed to prevail for the implementation of the agreements reached earlier in the dialogue.

Vucic told a news conference in Belgrade that the first pillar that the Kosovo premier proposed was the Kosovo Constitution, the second a statement by former EU high representative Federica Mogherini, "unilaterally made" to former Kosovo premier Isa Mustafa, that the Community should not have executive powers, and that the third proposed pillar was a text by U.S. officials Derek Chollet and Gabriel Escobar.

"We managed to prevail with the implementation of what was agreed during the dialogue. Whether it will be realized or not, we shall see. I hope it is possible, and I fear it will be much harder than what I anticipate today," Vucic said one day after a whole-day round of dialogue with Kurti in Ohrid under the auspices of the European Union.

He added that he had not signed the Implementation Annex to the Agreement on the Path to Normalization of Relations between Kosovo and Serbia for several reasons, one of which was the desire not to make agreements with Pristina under international law.