In the parallel reality created by regime i pro-regime media in Serbia, on Sunday, March 15, it says "Hello" - "It's just Kurti!". In other words: Pristina's plan failed and a disaster was averted. Serbia successfully resisted, and is still resisting, as President Vučić explained on the front page "Informer” and some other newspapers, to the united aggressors from the region, i.e. “the military alliance of Croatia, Albania and the so-called Kosovo".
By the way, Russian oil will also save the world. A few days later, in the same simulacrum, "Serbia resolutely continues its European path and our goal remains full membership in the European Union", writes the President of the Assembly Ana Brnabić on Instagram, along with a photo of a hug with the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos.
KOSOVO
TERMINOLOGY AND OTHER CONFUSIONS
In short – chaos with documents. This is how one could describe the situation on the ground these days in Kosovo, among the Serbian community. As Milica Andrić Rakić from the New Social Initiative explains for "Vreme", what was expected and said, i.e. what elementary logic dictates and what really happens on the ground are simply not in line. The following weeks will show which problems remain and which are just part of the running-in process. However, as the deadline for harmonization is three months, it is already a race against time while people still do not know which documents they need to obtain. For now, it seems that simplification has not happened, despite the hopes that existed even before the last crisis.
"Some people who do not have Kosovo documents have been struggling for years," explains Andrić Rakić. "For example, the biggest problems were faced by women from central Serbia who got married in Kosovo, changed their place of residence in Serbian documents and have passports to the Coordination Administration or identity cards to Kosovska Mitrovica. Even when they managed to verify the marriage - to 'rewrite' it in the Kosovo system, because there was a period when this was allowed - as soon as they come to apply for a residence permit, their passport is not recognized. And they do not have another travel document. Then, even if they received a residence permit and renewed it for five years, when they tried to apply for citizenship, they received the answer - impossible with that passport."
As the interlocutor of "Vremena" explains, without Kosovo documents you cannot register a child, you cannot get a job, neither in a Kosovo institution, nor legally with a private person, nor can you open a bank account. And at the same time, one of the conditions for applying for citizenship was that at some point in that account - which you can't open - you have six thousand euros, and you don't have to deposit the money yourself, but you have to have the funds continuously coming in for twelve months. And so indefinitely.
"While the emphasis was on the professors' work permits and their feelings about it, why they are being asked for it, many hoped that some kind of solution would be reached that would enable them to lead a normal life," Andrić Rakić points out. However, for now the procedure is not simplified.
Then, no distinction is made between two categories of people when it comes to Kosovo documents - those who have the right to citizenship based on their origin (one parent is from Kosovo) and/or birth and those who, for example, are just studying there. Although legally there should be a difference, in practice it is erased, so the same, longer and more complicated naturalization process is imposed on everyone.
Also, one more important unknown remains: when it comes to educational and health institutions, it is about gradual institutional integration, as the authorities in Pristina claim, or rather about a kind of legalization, as it was foreseen by the (previously leaked) statute of the Union of Serbian Municipalities, which model was also mentioned in the Ohrid Agreement, where it was called "a special level of management for the Serbian community".
"When someone talks about integration into the Kosovo system, I understand it as a process in which the existing institutions become part of the public system of Kosovo, as has already happened with the courts or the police. However, according to the leaked statute of the ZSO, educational and health institutions would have a different status - they would be registered in Kosovo, they would exist legally, but as private institutions, whose founders would be ministries from Serbia, where the funding would come from," explains Andrić Rakić.
Questions arise: does this mean that the Ohrid plan has been abandoned; whether the Pristina authorities are working on their own; is it completely okay with the European Union; maybe Kurti is using the term "institutional integration" for domestic use, knowing that it is not true, or is he really taking soft steps towards what has already been done with the courts and the police.
"I don't think the authorities have even thought about what integration really means - how much money, how many employees, what are the salary standards... This would be a very serious undertaking," says Andrić Rakić.
And finally, where is the "victory of Serbia", that is, what kind of defeat is it? Are we even close to closing a chapter, say Chapter 35?
photo: milica srejić...
PROBLEMS POSTPONED, QUESTIONS OPEN
The claim of the Serbian List and Belgrade about the victory is only an attempt to show that Serbia still has some influence on the events in the dialogue, Andrić Rakić believes. But this happened: Kosovo unilaterally made a decision that drastically affects the Serbian community, and the Serbian List was allowed to find alternative ways to implement that decision. The decision itself has nothing to do with the dialogue, but it is a matter of negotiations on how to technically perform something that was unfulfillable according to the initial criteria. For example - if the University of Pristina based in Kosovska Mitrovica is not accredited in Kosovo, how can it issue students with a certificate that would be recognized by the authorities there, or if the health institution is not registered, what about work permits, etc.?
"If the Association of Serbian Municipalities had been formed, all these problems would not exist. A special procedure is needed, because the ZSO is missing. And the status of those institutions has not been resolved, they are still in an illegal state and tomorrow someone can say - we gave you one year for those permits, but we won't anymore. The fundamental problem here has not changed, the institutions are still unprotected", concludes Andrić Rakić.
As for the Ohrid Agreement, recent events have not brought any news. Recognition of documents has already taken place, Kosovo identity cards are recognized, and that step was much bigger. Since it has not been fulfilled, Serbia opposes Kosovo's membership in certain international organizations. However, when it comes to the fight against recognition, she seems to have stopped there. As for the Pristina side, there is no Community of Serbian Municipalities or special protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
"In the last three years, it is obvious that there has only been suppression of Serbian institutions, either by their emigration outside the territory of Kosovo, or by these semi-mild measures of integration", the "Vremena" interlocutor points out.
When it comes to the attitude of Brussels towards Belgrade regarding Kosovo, one hears that the message is that, until Kosovo forms a JSO, Belgrade has nothing more to offer, nor is there anything to ask of it in this field. Almost everything, I guess, has already been delivered.
"Kurti has taken a step, so we are looking at how to implement it on the ground. There is no serious resistance from Belgrade. Why? The regime has to fight for power and will not tighten on other sides. In addition, they need to balance between different forces, because many bills have come to be paid, there are many fires everywhere", Andrić Rakić believes.
It seems that the policy of balancing is a policy without a goal and direction. Although this government claims that its goal is EU membership.
FREE-FLOATING PROPOSALS A. VUCIĆ
"Vučić left the north of Kosovo to Pristina practically to the end, both intentionally and through his own mistakes, without receiving any compensation for that," professor and diplomat Duško Lopandić, former ambassador of Serbia to the EU and vice president of the Serbia Center (SRCE) movement, told Vreme. Despite the flexibility in the dialogue, there was no progress - on the contrary, the negotiations were blocked, which is again connected to other issues, such as the authorities' avoidance of harmonizing foreign policies with the EU on the one hand, and on the other with the whole complex of (non)fulfillment of democratic standards (the so-called Copenhagen criteria).
He believes that this is why Serbia is experiencing failure on both fronts - the protection of Serbian interests in Kosovo, especially when it comes to the life and freedom of the Serbs living there, but also the European integration plan.
"The little capital that Vučić had with the democratic forces in Brussels was lost due to growing authoritarianism, brutality and repression, in response to the protests. Vučić basically gave up on membership, which he finally signed in the letter he drafted together with Ram, where he no longer calls for membership at all, but only inclusion in the single market and the Schengen area," continues Lopandić.
The proposal mentioned by the interlocutor of "Vremen" is actually the third in a series of (unrelated, even contradictory) initiatives of the President of Serbia in connection with European integration. First, at the end of last year, he spoke about the idea of the collective entry of all the countries of the Western Balkans into the European Union - which seems rather absurd, bearing in mind that Serbia lags behind the majority, while, for example, Montenegro is rapidly advancing towards membership (see text on page 9). Then, in February of this year, without a clear reason, he mentioned the possibility of Serbia accepting membership without the right of veto in the EU Council. Soon after, the letter he exchanged with Eddie Ram followed.
"That policy sounds like - give what you give. In addition, he 'fired' all these ideas unprovoked, without anyone asking him. And he doesn't even have the constitutional right to talk about it in that way because there is a platform for negotiations, therefore - the basis of how to negotiate in international relations", Lopandić believes.
STRONGEST WARNING
In the previous ten days, Ana Brnabić visited Brussels, for talks with Marta Kos, Commissioner for Enlargement, and Gert Jan Kopman, Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enlargement and the Eastern Neighborhood. Although Brnabić characterized the conversations on Instagram as excellent (with Kopman) and very good (with Marta Kos), at the press conference after the meeting she said that the European duo was worried about the judicial, so-called Mrdić's laws and that he will discuss with the Venice Commission about their possible amendments and additions.
Marta Kos, on the other hand, described the meeting quite harshly on the X network: she said that the steps taken by the Serbian authorities to limit the independence of the judiciary cause great concern and that the implementation of the new laws is expected to be put on hold. Then: "I informed the president (of the Assembly) that an assessment is underway as to whether Serbia still meets the conditions for payments from financial instruments of the European Union." She also called for an end to attacks on civil society and journalists. Just like that, without any embellishments.
"They are delaying everything they promised. The reform agenda, as part of the growth plan for the Western Balkans, has largely not been fulfilled or has been drastically delayed," explains Lopandić. "It refers to the period from 2024-2027, we are at the beginning of 2026, and the obligations from 2024 have not been fulfilled. Not only that, but it is being done exactly the opposite of what was requested. For example, in the Reform Agenda there are items on strengthening the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime."
Marta Kos sees the message as the strongest warning for Serbia so far, i.e. - not only will they receive less funds, but they may not receive funds at all from the Reform Plan. "For each measure, you have general and specific conditions," emphasizes Lopandić. "But in order to get to these others, you have to fulfill the general ones, and they are related to the issue of the rule of law, to the dialogue with Pristina and to the issue of foreign policy. So, if you don't fulfill the general ones, you won't get any funds." That's what Marta Kos wrote between the lines. And if we're being honest, it's not even between the lines anymore.
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