Belgrade, Priština initial agreement

Source: B92, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- The tenth round of the Belgrade-Priština dialogue is over and Serbian and Kosovo PMs Ivica Dačić and Hashim Thaci have initialed an agreement.

Ivica Dačić and Aleksandar Vučić (EU)

B92 has learned that the ninth point which refers to the police is unchanged while the 14th point that referred to Kosovo’s membership in international organizations has been altered.
B92 has also learned that it is still unknown when and if the agreement will be officially signed.

The agreement has not been made public yet. It is only known that it contains 15 points and that two of them – point 9 that refers to police in Serb-populated areas and point 14 that refers to Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, were especially disputable.

It has been confirmed to B92 that both delegations and Ashton will have a meeting at the NATO headquarters later today.

It is believed that the meeting with NATO will be held because of Serbia’s requests that the Kosovo army must not have access to the north which could only be realized with NATO’s support.

According to Tanjug, the Serbian negotiating team said earlier that it would not discuss an agreement if “the 14th point remains in the agreement and if the ninth point is changed”.

The Serbian delegation includes Serbian PM Ivica Dačić, First Deputy PM Aleksandar Vučić, Office for Kosovo Director Aleksandar Vulin and President Tomislav Nikolić's advisor Marko Đurić. Deputy PM for European Integration Suzana Grubješić is not a part of the team.

Ashton first held bilateral meetings with Belgrade and Priština’s teams. Her pokeswoman Maja Kocijančič stated around 16:00 that the trilateral meeting was underway.

“Deal possible if no changes are made to proposal”

Đurić stated in Brussels earlier on Friday that the Belgrade-Priština agreement was possible if there were no deviations from the proposal which was on the negotiating table.

“According to the proposal, the community of Serb municipalities will have executive competences, particularly in the terms of police, and it will be able to appoint regional police commander,” he told reporters ahead of the beginning of the tenth round of the Belgrade-Priština dialogue in Brussels.

He said that Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci was continuously manipulating and telling lies regarding the content of the proposed agreement.

“For Priština, the hardest thing is that the agreement which is currently on the table reads that only Serb policemen will be present in north Kosovo, while the Kosovo Security Forces will not be allowed to approach the north without a NATO approval and an agreement of the community of Serb municipalities,” Đurić noted.

“There is hope for the agreement if there are no manipulations and deviations from the proposal which is on the negotiating table,” he stressed.

Disputable parts of draft agreement

Dačić said earlier that Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci had tried to change point 14 so it would oblige the two sides not to block each other in the international organizations.

He said that it would mean that Serbia would have to allow Kosovo to be a member of the international organizations which was unacceptable to Serbia.

Thaci, on the other hand, said that Serbia could state its wishes but that the reality is different.

“In the agreement that Ashton proposed, Kosovo is given the right to be represented in regional and international organizations, to become a NATO member but also the UN,” he noted.

It was announced earlier that the Serbian team’s visit to Brussels would begin with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen but according to new information, the meeting will be held later today.

B92 has learned from NATO that they “cannot rule out a possibility that the meeting will be held” but the Alliance could not say when the meeting could begin.

Rasmussen said on Friday that NATO would do everything “in order to implement a possible agreement”.

Nikolić, Dačić and Vučić on Thursday held consultations and analyzed the last round of the talks that ended without an agreement.

The agreement was not reached at the ninth round because Thaci insisted that the 14th point be changed so Kosovo’s membership in the international organizations would not be blocked. B92 has also learned that Priština had additional conditions regarding the police.