Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Vučić: Progress made but no agreements

New round of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina ended last night after 17 hours of talks, and the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić told the press that no agreement has been made on any issue on the agenda.

“Sadly, we failed to reach an agreement on any issue“, Vučić told the press as he was exiting the building of the European External Affairs Service and added that two delegations came close to reaching an agreement on the Community of Serbian Municipalities.

“The Priština delegation did not even want to except vesting CSM with competences afforded to municipalities, including urban planning, health care and economic development“, the Serbian Prime Minister specified.

He added that some progress has been made in telecommunications, but no agreement has been finalized.

“We succeeded in preserving the property of “Telekom“ and agreed that the calls to Serbia should not be charged as international calls“, Vučić said.

Basically no progress has been made in the remaining two points of the dialogue, the Prime Minister pointed out.

“I fear that the Priština did not come to Brussels with the intention to sign any agreements“, Vučić said and added that the Belgrade delegation negotiated in good faith and was ready to come to arrangements.

Vučić said that he did not know when would next round be scheduled in Brussels.

Asked if the lack of progress in the Monday dialogue would affect Serbian European integrations, Vučić said that he is not able to respond to that question, but that he was personally ready to assume all responsibilities and consequences.

Previously, during the pause of the dialogue, Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić said that the new round of talks in the Brussels dialogue is unfolding in a very difficult atmosphere, and that the impression is that the Priština party refuses to make any arrangement.

“They did not come here to make an arrangement“, Đurić told the press, adding that during the first part of the dialogue, which lasted for eight hours, the atmosphere was “insufferable“.

“What we as the members of Belgrade delegation had to endure I would not wish on anyone“, Đurić said and added that the bulk of the pressure was shouldered by the Prime Minister Vučić.

In line with the previous agreement, he refused to comment the statement made by the head of the Priština delegation Isa Mustafa, that serious progress has been made concerning the Community of Serbian Municipalities.

“I will refrain from grading but some progress has been made“, Đurić said and added that some serious issues are still pending.

Đurić said that the CSM was only seriously discussed and that Priština attempted to discuss the issue of status rather than telecommunications and energy, which our delegation refused.

He noted that making an agreement requires readiness for talks and compromise, something that the Priština delegation is very far from.

“Our delegation will persevere till the end“, Đurić said, adding that there pressure was exerted and “separate premises used“, and that the pressure did not only come from the EU but also from the exchange of arguments that often bordered on provocations and use of inappropriate tone.

The intention of our delegation, Đurić said, is to use the dialogue in Brussels as a platform for resolving problems and not for quarrels.

Head of the Priština delegation Isa Mustafa told the press that progress has been made about the CSM and the telecommunications, but that his delegation could not accept the requests made by the Belgrade party.

“They wanted executive competences for the CSM, and that goes against our law and our constitution“, Mustafa said.

He confirmed that progress has been made in telecommunications, and that agreement has been made concerning the international dialing code for Kosovo, but that no agreement has been signed, because the international community wanted all four issues signed in a parcel.

Mustafa said that the date of the next round of the dialogue depended on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

The dialogue on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, mediated by the EU and led by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić and Isa Mustafa, began on Monday morning at 09:00 and resumed just after 20:30, to be finalized on Tuesday, a little after 01:30 PM.

The agenda included four questions: CSM, telecommunications, energy and "Peace Park" in Kosovska Mitrovica.