news 22 Mar 13

Dacic and Thaci Closing Deal on North Kosovo

Kosovo and Serbia leaders have already reached a substantive agreement on the future Association of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo and will announce the outcome on April 2, an EU diplomat told Balkan Insight.

Bojana Barlovac BIRN Belgrade

Prime Ministers Hashim Thaci and Ivica Dacic will anounce a deal on forming an Association of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo on April 2, an EU diplomat told Balkan Insight.

"A general deal has been made but the two leaders will agree on the details on April 2," the same source added.

According to the plan, 10 Serbian municipalities - four in Serb-run northern Kosovo and six from the rest of Kosovo - will transfer their responsibilities to the Association, the diplomat explained.

The plan is in line with EU and Kosovo demands that Serbia dismantle its so-called "parallel" structures in the north, and with Serbian demands for broad autonomy to be offered to all Serb-populated areas in Kosovo.

Since the end of the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s, the north of Kosovo has been beyond the Kosovo government's control while Serbia has continued to finance local security, judicial, health and educational institutions.

The EU Special Representative in Kosovo, Samuel Zbogar, also said on Thursday that the next prime ministerial meeting on April 2 will yield key agreements.

The reports of progress emerged after a day of separate and joint sessions that the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, conducted with both prime ministers on Wednesday.

However, Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister, said on Thursday that Serbia had been offered an "unacceptable" solution.

The EU source, however, said that the two Balkan leaders were simply buying time in order to prepare their publics for the deal on April 2.

The EU-mediated technical dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia was launched in March 2011, three years after Kosovo declared independence.

The aim is to normalize relations between the two countries, both of which aspire to EU membership, in the context of Serbia's continued refusal to recognise Kosovo's independence.

"Normalisation" of relations with Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is the EU's main precondition for Serbia as it continues to pursue EU membership.

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