Speaker of Kosovo Parliament, Vjosa Osmani has not been informed regarding the railway agreement signed in Munich between Kosovo and Serbia, in the attendance of presidents Thaçi and Vučić, local media reported.
Osmani, who represents one of the two governing coalition partners (LDK), said she could not comment on the agreement prior to reading it.
“I don’t know the details or who are the officials that signed it,” she said, adding that she could comment after the agreement reaches the parliament.
Osmani clarified that international agreements have to pass parliament before being implemented.
She underlined that based on a Constitutional Court verdict, their governing coalition will not let President Thaçi deal with the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and agreements. “The Constitutional Court has made it clear that only the Prime Minister and Government can negotiate agreements,” Osmani stated. “We won’t let another dialogue, with presidents [negotiating] over maps, happen,” she added, possibly referring to failed attempts by Thaçi and Vučić to swap territories.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti also stated that he had not authorized the signing of any agreement. He added that whilst his government supports regional cooperation, agreements have to be “transparent, resulting from genuine negotiations, and in full compliance with the sovereignty and laws of the country, economic priorities and in line with the obligations arising from the Stabilization and Association Agreement.”
The agreements were pushed forward by the US President’s envoy Richard Grenell, who is also the US Ambassador in Berlin. They were possibly negotiated by the previous Kosovo government but were signed on the tenth day of Kurti’s premiership, without his knowledge and authorization.
Grenell is dedicated to mediating for Kosovo and Serbia to reach a final agreement once they have restarted the dialogue of normalization, which has stalled since 2018.
The US and several EU countries have asked Kurti to drop a tariff on Serbian goods imposed by the previous government in 2018, after Serbia’s successful blocking of Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO and Interpol, as well as its active foreign policy to demand countries withdraw recognition of Kosovo.
Kurti’s LVV party won October elections on the promise that they would replace the tariff with “economic, political and commercial reciprocity” with Serbia. On the 11th day of the government, it is still not clear what exactly the “reciprocity” could look like, given that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state. Kurti has stated that they are working on a proposal but the pressure on his government has been growing every day.
